ABSTRACT
Carbon materials are the most effective adsorbents to uptake low-molecular compounds and ions from different dispersion media or ows because of a very large specic surface area (1000-3500 m2/g), large pore volume (1-3 cm3/g), controlled pore size distribution (PSD) with a great nanoporosity contribution, and a variety of H-and O-containing functionalities (Smisek and Cerny 1970, Gregg and Sing 1982, Bansal et al. 1988, Fenelonov 1995, Adamson and Gast 1997, Bansal and Goyal 2005, Bandosz 2006). Some carbons can also include functionalities with N and other heteroatoms. Nanoporous activated carbons (ACs) are inappropriate to uptake high-molecular compounds because of a major contribution of narrow pores, which are inaccessible for large molecules, especially of a globular shape. However, macroporous or meso/macroporous carbons can be appropriate for adsorption of large molecules, e.g., proteins. Thus, the accessibility of inner pores of particles of carbon adsorbents for different adsorbents can be varied due to controlled changes in contributions from nanopores to macropores to the PSDs and variations in AC granule sizes.
