ACF's is a technological textile. This product is an advance in the field of activated carbons. As activated carbon, they show a great adsorption capacity for all kinds of organic compounds, vapours, contaminants and odours. They are made 100% from activated carbon fibres and obtained from their activation. As activated carbon and fibre at the same time, they have different properties than conventional activated carbon, that make them more suitable for several applications than conventional granular or powdered activated carbon.

Activated carbon fabrics are obtained from viscose (or another polymer bases fibres) that is carbonized and activated by heat treatment under oxidative atmosphere.

• They are flexile, giving them different forms.
• As filters, they are their own support.
• They do not disaggregate, because there is not friction between particles.
• They do not trend to agglomerate or comprise, decreasing the adsorption capacity.
• They do not produce channelling in the filters made from them. To solve the channelling phenomena, the typical filters systems must be over scaling.
• They have low-pressure drop

Adsorbent Properties (as Activated Carbon):

• They have a high specific surface area: 1000 - 2000 m2/g (only activated carbons show this highly developed porous structure).
  
• They are highly microporous (with pore diameter lower than 2·10-9 m). This porosity give them specially good properties as adsorbentfor inorganic compounds and medium/small organic compounds, like phenols, pesticides, halogen-organic compounds, etc.
  Mesoporous (with pore diameter between 2 and 50·10-9 m) materials are possible under special treatments. These materials are convenient for fat organic molecules, like proteins, organic decomposition products, etc.

Diffusional Properties (as Activated Carbon Fiber):

They show high adsorption rate in dynamic experiments, even one magnitude order higher than granular activated carbon. This is due to they are make from fibres with a diameter 3 - 4· 10-6 m, several times smaller than smaller powdered activated carbon. This small fibre section gives them high external surface, decreasing diffusional problems. A TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) photograph of our fibres is showed below:

Particular Properties (as Carbon Fiber)

• They are heat and electricity conductors. These properties give them important advantages:
  • Easy ion adsorption by electrodeposition
  • Easy regeneration by heating by current pass.
• They are flame resistant