Carbon is the most abundant element on earth. Amongst the most common forms of carbon are coal, coconut shell, wood, peat, and lignite. Wood is the principal raw material used in the manufacture of the activated carbon developed by R&D division of AIMTOP under brand name KARBOSORB®.

Carefully selected raw materials are processed at low temperatures (200-300°C) to remove natural volatile components and residual moisture levels. This is the initial carbonisation step. This is followed by passing the raw material through high temperature (800-1100°C) activation reactor in the presence of a stringently controlled flow of steam which is used as the oxidising medium. The activation reactor used is fluidized bed reactor with steam activation.

The resulting product is a powerful adsorbent with a range of pores of molecular dimensions. Under a scanning electron microscope the pore development is clearly visible, appearing like a porous bath sponge. This high concentration of pores within a relatively small volume produces a material with a phenomenal internal surface area.

It is this vast internal surface area that gives activated carbon its unique ability to adsorb a wide range of compounds from both the gas and liquid phase. The target compound is contacted with the activated carbon and subsequently diffuses into the internal pore structure. The internal surface area of the activated carbon exhibits weak Van der Waals forces wich lock the compound into the pore structure. The process of transferring molecules from the gas or liquid phase onto a solid surface is defined as adsorption.