Production of antipollutant mask with bamboo based carbon activated using H₃PO₄ and K₂CO₃

Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

^* Coresponding author: msudib@che.ui.ac.id

Abstract

The increase of developing countries’ economic level has led to increase in air pollution problem. This research aims to make activated carbon based gas mask filter that was prepared from bamboo scraps by the combined activation using H₃PO₄ and K₂CO₃.Bamboo was selected as raw material because of its abundant availability and high cellulose content (42.4-53.6%).Dip coating was conducted to coat activated carbon on the surface layer of mask by adding TEOS compound.Furthermore, adsorption capacity of activated carbon was tested using compartment by flowing air containing CO and CO2 for one hour. The results of the characterization shows that the iodine number of the activated carbon produced reaches 916.3 mg/g with BET surface area of 465.2 m²/g. SEM-EDX analysis shows that the carbon content is 74.83%wt.Adsorption capacity of activated carbon was tested using compartment by flowing air containing pollutant gas and compressed air for one hour. The results indicate that the maximum number of moles CO₂ adsorbed is 4.8 mmol/g with 7 hour saturated time,while adsorption capacity of CO measured in 1 hour test is 0.103 mmol/g. Therefore, activated carbon has met the standards and can be applied for gas mask filter to eliminate CO and CO₂ until below safety limit concentration.