Question

How is wood charcoal different from activated charcoal?

Answer 1

Dear student,


There's a difference between charcoal and activated charcoal. Both are derived from carbon, but activated charcoal is much more porous than charcoal. Because of its larger surface area, activated carbon can filter more than charcoal; making it a wiser choice in many more applications.
Charcoal: Charcoal consists of the element carbon. Carbonic compounds are abundant in plants, animals, and other living organisms. Therefore, as they die, these carbonic compounds are ultimately converted to other carbonic compounds. Charcoal is one of those products. When water and other volatile substances are removed from the carbonic compounds, the resulting product is charcoal. Charcoal is in the solid form, and it has a dark grey colour. It contains ash; therefore, charcoal doesn’t have carbon in its pure form.
Activated Charcoal: When producing activated carbon, charcoal is treated with oxygen. When charcoal is activated, it is processed in a way to increase the porosity. Because of this, activated carbon will have a large surface area, which can adsorb substances effectively. This primarily increases its effectiveness as a filter. Therefore, activated carbon is mainly used in water filters, in the chemical purification process, and in medicine. As we use them, the impurities tend to accumulate in the carbon surfaces. So the disadvantage of using this is that they become less effective as we use them

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