This PDF document provides a detailed account of the origin and historical applications of activated carbon. It highlights that activated carbon, as a traditional and modern man-made material, has witnessed continuous expansion in its application fields and increasing usage since its invention. The document examines historical records of charcoal applications and provides insights into the invention process and industrial production of activated carbon. Furthermore, it broadly divides the history of activated carbon application into three stages and identifies two significant events as milestones in its application history. The first event is the use of activated carbon in gas masks during World War I, marking the initial stage of activated carbon's application history. The second event is the successful application of activated carbon in odor removal, which led to its widespread use in water treatment, gas purification, and other areas. The document also delves into the application history of Chinese activated carbon brands, dividing it into three stages. Overall, this document offers valuable insights into the origin and historical applications of activated carbon, serving as a crucial reference for understanding its development and usage.

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The origin of activated carbon
Activated carbon is a traditional and modern man-made material,
also known as activated charcoal . In the 100 years since the advent of
activated carbon, the application fields of activated carbon have been
expanding day by day, and the number of applications has been
increasing.
Looking back at the history of charcoal application, the
record is as follows:
(1) Records of medical use in Egypt in 1550 BC
(2) From 460 to 359 BC, the Greek doctor Hippocrate used to treat
epilepsy
(3) From 1518 to 1593, China’s Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia
Medica mentioned its use in treating diseases.
(4) External use for ulcers in 1993;
(5) In 1794, a British sugar factory used it to accelerate decolorization.
The above examples all use charcoal, not activated carbon.

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Activated carbon, as a man-made material, was only invented in
1900 and 1901. The inventor obtained a British patent; he invented the
method of carbonizing plant-source raw materials with metal chlorides
or reacting carbon dioxide or water vapor with carbonized materials to
produce activated carbon. The factory near Vienna was first used for
industrial production in 1911. At that time, the product was powdered
activated carbon with the trade name Epomit; in the same year, Norit
was launched in the Netherlands; in 1912, Carboraffin was sold in
Czechoslovakia.
Looking back at the history of activated carbon application in the
world over the past century, it may be roughly divided into three
stages:
(1) The first stage, from the early 20th century to about the 1920 s, is the
embryonic stage

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(2) The second stage, from about the mid-1920 s to the mid-term to the
growth stage
(3) The third stage is the development stage from the mid-20th century
to the end of the 20th century. The development of activated carbon has
become a major application stage for environmental protection.
These three stages can be used to describe two historic events in
the application process of activated carbon as a dividing line.
The first major event was the use of activated carbon gas masks in
World War I in the 1920s. It can be used as a boundary to divide the first
and second stages of activated carbon application history. The main
application of activated carbon in the early stage was that powdered
carbon gradually replaced the original bone char in the sugar industry.
The particles, which emerged during World War I in the 1920 s, were
used extensively in gas masks. This is a glorious page in the history of
industrial chemistry. At that time, Norit in the Netherlands and
manufacturers and wholesalers from Czechoslovakia, Germany, France,
Switzerland and other countries established a joint company, indicating
that the activated carbon budding in Europe was also a widely optimistic
emerging industry.

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Driven by the application of gas masks, the history of activated carbon
has entered the second stage. The activated carbon market continues to
expand. The adsorption and catalytic functions of activated carbon have
been continuously developed in the refining, recycling, and synthesis of
many industries. Activated carbon plants in the United States and other
countries have been opened one after another. Activated carbon, which
continued to expand its application areas in the mid-20th century, is
regarded as a universal adsorbent.
The second major event is the deodorizing effect of activated carbon:
In 1927, a stench accident in tap water occurred at the Chicago
Waterworks in the United States that was unacceptable to the majority
of residents. This was due to the odor generated by the phenol in the
raw water and the chlorine used for disinfection. Similar accidents have

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also occurred in water plants in Germany and other places, and these
accidents were all solved with activated carbon.
Since then, as environmental protection has received increasing
attention, government regulations have become increasingly strict. The
usage of activated carbon has increased dramatically not only in water
purification, but also in gas purification and other aspects. In the second
half of the 20th century, the environmental protection industry became
a major user of activated carbon. As a result, the history of activated
carbon has entered the third stage, that is, the development stage.
The application history of Chinese activated carbon brands can be
simply divided into three stages.

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(1) The first stage was before the 1940 s. my country's pharmaceutical
and chemical industries used a large amount of activated carbon, all of
which were imported, such as Carboraffin brand activated carbon.
(2) The second stage began in the early 1950 s when Chinese-produced
activated carbon came on the market. In 1951, the single-tube furnace
factories in Shenyang and Fushun, the reverberatory furnace smoldering
method factory in Qingdao, the excellent electrothermal activation
method factory, and then the zinc chloride activation method factory
were established.
In 1958, Fujian, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Yantai, Northeast China, and
Henan Zhengzhou and other places have built factories one after
another. In 1966, Taiyuan opened a Slep activation method factory.
Subsequently, hundreds of Slep furnace factories were opened in my
country.
In addition, there are many factories such as converters and cake
furnaces. The total production capacity soared from 30 to 50 tons in
1951 to nearly 100,000 tons in the 1980 s. Production and application
promote each other, and the application scope of activated carbon is
rapidly expanded.

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From the original single general-purpose carbon to a variety of special
carbons, such as water purification carbon, sugar carbon, monosodium
glutamate carbon, oil carbon, gold carbon, carrier carbon, medicinal
carbon, injection carbon, reagent carbon, etc., it shows that activated
carbon is widely used in domestic The economy is booming, the
application volume is increasing rapidly, and the export volume is
increasing due to the expansion of production and the reduction of cost.
The application of activated carbon in China has not only developed in
the domestic market, but also entered the international market.
Activated carbon is a very excellent adsorbent. It uses charcoal,
bamboo charcoal, various fruit shells and high-quality coal as raw
materials. It uses physical and chemical methods to crush, screen,
activate catalyst, rinse, dry and dry the raw materials.
It is processed and manufactured through a series of processes such
as screening. It has the dual characteristics of physical adsorption and
chemical adsorption, and can selectively adsorb various substances in
the gas phase and liquid phase to achieve the purposes of decolorization
and refining, disinfection, deodorization, decontamination and
purification.

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Inspection standards can be in accordance with China's national
standard GB, or in accordance with other national standards, such as:
American ASTM, Japanese JIS, German DIN standards, etc. Activated
carbon adsorptive adsorption properties are the primary properties of
activated carbon. Activated carbon has microcrystals that resemble
graphite grains but are arranged irregularly. During the activation
process, pores of different shapes and sizes are produced between the
crystallites.
Activated carbon materials are divided into: fruit shells, coconut
shells, apricot shells, peach shells, date shells, etc.; the pore volume of
activated carbon price micropores is generally only 0.25-0.9 mL/g, the
number of pores is about 1020/g, and the total micropore surface area is
about It is 500-1500 m2
/g, usually measured by the BET method, and is
also said to be as high as 3500-5000m2
/g.

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Almost more than 95% of the surface area of activated carbon is in
micropores. Therefore, except for some macromolecules that cannot
enter, micropores are an important factor in determining the adsorption
performance of activated carbon.
The pore volume of mesopores is generally about 0.02-1.0 mL/g, and
the surface area can reach up to several hundred square meters, which
is generally only about 5% of the total activated carbon. Its function can
adsorb steam, provide channels for adsorbents to enter the micropores,
and directly adsorb larger molecules.