Synthesis and Characterization of Activated Carbon from Rice husk

Rice husk (RH) is considered as the starting material for synthesis of materials such as silicon carbide. The use of this material as a low-cost resource for production of low-cost and high capacity anode materials is becoming a trend due to the availability of this material on a worldwide scale. Following this trend, this manuscript focuses on the synthesis of activated carbon (AC) from rice husk. Activated carbon was synthesized by pyrolysis of RH under air atmosphere at 400 C for 2 hours followed by NaOH treatment and heating to 800 C for activation. Formation of the activated carbon was confirmed through XRD measurements. Products were characterized morphologically. A mesoporous structure with a high surface area of 580 m2.g-1 (determined through BET measurements) is formed. Detailed analysis discloses the fact that the pore size is in the range of hundreds of nanometers to about one micron which makes the material suitable for application in lithium-ion batteries.