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

[This is a blown up picture of porous material.](https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/background-texture-of-porous-material-gm1163909040-319754656)

Although it’s not necessarily “activated charcoal” (I found it searching for “pumice stone close up pics”) it gives you an idea of how much more surface area is involved on the microscopic level when dealing with these “porous materials”.

A small amount of this stuff can have the surface area (on a 2D level) of a doubles tennis court.