Pembuatan Karbon Aktif dari Ampas Sagu Menggunakan Aktivator ZnCl2

Abstract

Activated carbon is a carbon with an amorphous structure arranged in a parallel hexagonal ring. In this research, activated carbon has been synthesized from sago waste. The purpose of this research was to synthesize activated carbon with ZnCl₂ activator and investigate the effect of ZnCl₂ activator concentration on the characteristics of activated carbon. Synthesis of activated carbon was carried out with the following stages: dehydration, carbonization, silica extraction with NaOH and ZnCl₂ activation with variations in concentrations of 5, 15 and 20%. The characterization of activated carbon was carried out by analyzing the crystal structure and morphology, which was conducted using a scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffractometer. The characterization results showed that the best activated carbon was synthesized from 15% ZnCl₂ activator due to its amorphous structure with a relatively small pore size of 2 µm.