Microcapsules containing super activated carbon (SAC) were prepared using the spray drying method. JMP statistical analyses and design of experiment software was used to reduce the number of formulations needed for this research’s experimental design, where sixteen formulations were created. These formulations contain different amounts of polyvinyl alcohol, SAC, and water. The resulting microcapsules were characterized using the spray-dried microcapsules’ yields, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Infrared (IR) spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) instrument, and a Cahn balance. SEM was used to examine the morphologies (shapes), sizes, and clustering patterns of the microcapsules. It was found that the uniformity on the basis of size and shape varied among the different formulations using the same spray drying conditions. The microcapsules varied in size between approximately 1 to 50 µm in diameter. Their shapes were found to be either perfectly spherical, or non-spherical solids having one or more indented and/or jagged edges. The degree of clustering also varied among the formulations. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy was used to verify the presence of functional groups –CH (~3000 cm<sup>-1</sup>) and –OH (~3300 cm<sup>-1</sup>) in the polyvinyl alcohol microcapsule wall. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was used to measure the microcapsules’ wall thicknesses. BET was used to measure the SAC’s specific surface area before and after they were encapsulated for all formulations, and the Cahn balance was used to measure the adsorptive capacity of SAC both before and after they are encapsulated. Eventual application of these SAC microcapsules will be in development of hazardous chemical barrier materials, where they will be loaded into a microporous membrane, and their polyvinyl alcohol shell wall will be dissolved and extracted, leaving behind the resulting activated carbon containing membrane.

Production and characterization of activated carbon containing polyvinyl alcohol microcapsules

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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