Moso bamboo, as a kind of renewable functional material, exhibits outstanding development potential. It is promising to prepare activated carbon with good mechanical strength and high specific surface area using moso bamboo as raw material. In this work, we employed a hydraulic extruder to extrude the bamboo charcoal and the adhesive to obtain the moso bamboo activated carbon, and improved the specific surface area of the columnar activated carbon through high-temperature water vapor activation. Through the catalytic role of the water vapor activation process, the formation and expansion of the pores were promoted and the internal pores were greatly increased. The obtained columnar activated carbon shows excellent mechanical strength (93%) and high specific surface area (791.54 m2/ g). Polyacrylamide@asphalt is one of the most effective adhesives in the high-temperature water vapor activation. The average pore size (22.99 nm) and pore volume (0.36 cm3/ g) of the prepared columnar activated carbon showed a high mesoporous ratio (83%). Based on the excellent pore structure brought by the activation process, the adsorption capacity of iodine (1135.75 mg/g), methylene blue (230 mg/g) and carbon tetrachloride (64.03 mg/g) were greatly improved. The resultant moso bamboo columnar activated carbon with high specific surface area, excellent mechanical properties, and outstanding adsorption capacity possesses a wide range of industrial applications and environmental protection potential.

Polyacrylonitrile/pitch nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning as a precursor for a gas sensor material. Pitch nanofibers were properly fabricated by incorporating polyacrylonitrile as an electrospinning supplement component. Polyacrylonitrile/pitch nanofibers were activated with steam at various temperatures followed by subsequent carbonization to make carbon nanofibers with a highly conductive graphitic structure. Steam activation was effective in facilitating gas adsorption onto the carbon nanofibers due to the increased surface area. The carbon nanofibers activated at 800°C had a larger surface area and a lower micro pore fraction resulting in a higher variation in electrical resistance for improved CO gas sensing properties.

Activated carbons are well known as adsorbents for gases and vapors. Micro porous carbons are used for the sorption/separation of light gases, whereas, carbon with bigger pore size are applied for removal of large molecules. Therefore, the control of pore size of activated carbon plays a vital role for their use in specific applications. In the present work, steam activation parameters have been varied to control pore size of the resulting activated carbon. It was found that flow rate of steam has profound effect on both surface characteristic and surface morphology. The flow rate of steam was optimized to retain monolith structure as well as higher surface area.

Short pitch fibers were prepared from petroleum based isotropic precursor pitch by melt-blown technology. The pitch fibers were stabilized in oxidizing condition, followed by steam activations at various conditions. The fiber surface and pore structures of the activated carbon fibers (ACFs) were respectively characterized by using SEM and applying BET theory from nitrogen adsorption at 77 K. The weight loss of the oxidized fiber was proportional to activation temperature and activation time, independently. The adsorption isotherms of the nitrogen on the ACFs were constructed and analyzed to be as Type I consisting of micropores mainly. The specific surface area of the ACFs proportionally increased with the weight loss at a given activation temperature. The specific surface area was ranged 850~1900 m2/g with pores of narrow distribution in sizes. The average pore size was ranged 5.8~14.1 a with the larger value from the more severe activation condition.