Investigation of Physic-Chemical Properties of Activated Carbon Fabrics Prepared from Cotton Fabric and Nonwoven Polypropylene

The recycling of textile industrial wastes and converting them to valuable products, is one the most important approaches for resources preservation. Activated carbon is the most commonly used adsorbents for removal of air pollutant gases and chemical vapors. The production of activated carbon highly depends on raw materials or its precursors. In the present study, cotton fabric waste was used as raw material for preparation of activated carbon fabrics using phosphoric acid (H3PO4). The chemical properties of the resulting activated carbon fabric were measured by determination of the iodic number, BET, SEM and XPS analyses. The produced activated carbon fabrics were sandwiched between two layers of nonwoven polypropylene layers and the physical properties were measured. The activation conditions for obtaining the activated carbon fabrics with the highest iodine number and the lowest flexural stiffness were found to be: activation temperature of 550°C, impregnation ratio of 1.75, the activation time of 60 min and the heating rate of 6 °C/min. The dimension yield and weight yield were 52.5% and 29.9%, respectively. The results showed that H3PO4 is an efficient reagent for activation of cotton fabrics. The nonwoven polypropylene layers served to strengthen the sandwich composite. The produced activated carbon sandwiched between poly propylene layers can be used in chemical protective masks.