Preparation of pitch-based spherical activated carbon with developed mesopore by the aid of ferrocene Original Research Article

In this paper, ferrocene was added into the starting pitch, producing iron-containing pitch spheres. After activation in steam, pitch-based spherical activated carbon with high mesopore ratio was obtained. The factors, such as activation time, activation temperature and iron content, were studied in order to investigate their effects on the formation of mesopore. Results show that the catalytic activation reaction took place at the vicinity of iron particles, leading to the increase of meso- and macropores. On condition that the burn-off was similar, the higher the temperature was, the higher the pore (10.0–80.0 nm) volume and the mesopore ratio would be. The loading method of iron in this study makes it possible to control the catalytic reaction in a wider range. Mesopore volume and size can be controlled within a certain range by selecting appropriate experimental conditions.