ABSTRACT
There is an increased global demand for activated carbon (AC) in the application of industry and agricultural production, such as chemical catalysis, water purification, medical engineering, and military defense. Researchers associate the chemical features of AC with its properties and thus its reactivity and price in the application. As a result, characterization methods and analysis play a significant role. This paper gives a brief review of characterization technologies for chemical features of AC, about the working mechanism, operation, and application examples of four technologies——FTIR, XPS, TPD, and TGA. To obtain information on elements composition, surface functional groups, electronic structures, and critical structures of AC, they are often used jointly as corroboration for each other.
