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

Activated charcoal and charcoal are chemically the same. They’re almost entirely carbon. The difference is that “Activated” charcoal is charcoal that has been made to be physically porous like a sponge. This greatly increases the surface area.

One of charcoal’s more useful properties is that it’s good at adsorbing and trapping other hydrocarbons. Since adsorption happens at a material surface, more surface area = more adsorption.

>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.

Without questioning *why* you want to do this, I assume for science, I think the best way would be through [chemical activation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon#Production).

Looks like basic DIY activated charcoal uses calcium chloride solution to activate the charcoal.