Eli5 how does coal removes bad odors like fish or dried fruits
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It’s important to point out that coal itself isn’t the critical thing here, you want something called “activated carbon”. Coal is carbon rich so you can use it, but it’s more commonly sourced from things like wood and fibrous plant material (like coconut husks, bamboo fronds, etc).
If you’ve heard of “Charcoal”, charcoal isn’t coal like from a mine, it’s wood fiber that’s been baked in a kiln to remove water and impurities, it’s basically pure carbon. It’s not a far leap to convert charcoal into activated carbon, which is just another step in the process.
It basically makes carbon atoms form a really open and porous sponge like material, it almost looks like lava rocks. That’s important because all the porosity creates a ton of surface area which means tons of exposed carbon atoms. Carbon is like an elemental best friend, *everything* likes forming bonds with carbon atoms (which is why life on Earth is carbon-based). This means the activated carbon “sponge” soaks up other atoms and molecules like a sponge does water and holds onto them. Hence, it makes a great filter on an atomic layer.
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