Impregnation was then carried out at 70 C in a water
bath until excess water was evaporated. The samples were filtered
and dried at 110 C in an oven, without washing, before carbonization
at 450 C under inert atmosphere. The carbonized products
were washed with 0.50 M hydrochloric acid solution, hot deionized
28 A. Zyoud et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 152 (2015) 27e35
water and cold deionized water sequentially, to remove residual
organic and mineral matters and to bring the pH within the range
4.5e5. The final product was dried in an oven at 110 C and stored
in a desiccator for further use. The resulting AC solid was termed
ZnCl2/450-AC. The general activation procedure discussed above is
schematically outlined in Scheme 1 below. Table 1 summarizes
preparation procedures for all AC samples described above.