Eli5: How is Charcoal activated and what makes it different from normal charcoal?

Question

I’m trying to see if I can make my own activated charcoal diy, from bonfire charcoal and if it is equally as good as the purchased activated charcoal.

In: 817

Answer 1

My final year of school required a study to be made, I did mine on activated carbon.

I found that you don’t necessarily get ‘better’ activated charcoal, but that different ones are suited for different tasks.

Depending on the matter used as substrate, and the production method, you will end up with different sized pores in the final product. This changes how the charcoal interacts with different sized molecules.