This past October I was invited to present on the many uses and benefits of medicinal activated charcoal and its place in the growing health market at the annual International Activated Carbon Conference in Pittsburg PA. Coincidently one of the other speakers was Brian Strohmerier, PhD (RJ Lee Group Inc.) who gave a fascinating presentation on the various electron microscopy tools used in analyzing some of the mystifying surface characteristics of different activated carbons. Unbeknownst to us Dr. Strohmerier purchased a number of different SAMPLES of the more popular grades of activated charcoal that we sell and used them as specimens for his different studies. We have included a number of slides that he was gracious to make available to us. These slides are all copyrighted so we ask that you do not copy any of them without first obtaining permission.

Some explanations and abbreviations:

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a potent qualitative and quantitative surface characterization technique. It is able to scan the “skin” of charcoal particles down to the nanometer, which provides functional information on the types and relative amounts of carbon-oxygen, carbon-nitrogen and other organic groups that are present on carbon surfaces, and what competing impurities may affect their performance. This is especially relevant to the growing field of nano-technology.

Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM)

Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM)

Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS)

Each of the above three are more microscopic tools used to visually and qualitatively measure the surface and subsurface makeup of nanomaterials.

These slides are shared to show the intricate and extensive internal structures of various activated charcoals, not to attempt to give an explanation of the functional properties or differences between activated carbons.

The sets of IMAGES are as follows:

1. Hardwood Activated Charcoal Powder (ACP1500)
   
2. Activated Bone Char (Bone Char 2060)
3. Coconut Activated Charcoal Powder (USP1250)
4. Coconut Granular Activated Charcoal (GAC48C)