In this work, the preparation of activated carbons through the pyrolysis of elastomers, arising from car threads of tire waste, was investigated. The material was processed at 500, 620 and 700 °C, under N2 atmosphere, by using potassium hydroxide as activating agent. The resulting products were characterized by physisorption of N2 at 77 K, through Brunauer, Emmet and Teller isotherms, and scanning electron microscopy. The carbons obtained display a characteristic structure of mesoporous materials and the pyrolysis temperature has strong influence on the specific area and porous volume distribution. The activated carbon obtained at 700 °C has high specific area and compact structure. It exhibited high performance for adsorption of methylene blue solution, removing 1.1 x 10-1 g of the dye per gram of carbon in less than 300 s.
Activated carbon; pyrolysis; recycling
