Where to get NANO activated carbon?

[Ike Mouser]

As seen in these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spw6PVQClUo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPENqD-V-TQ

Google did not turn up much. Is nano activated carbon the same thing as regular powdered carbon seen here:

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/activated_charcoal_powder

Or is it actually some kind of nano tech?

[Steven Paris]

Ike,

I think the nano refers to the "pore" size in the charcoal/carbon pieces, but I'm no expert.

Although probably much cheaper in bulk, you can also buy AC at pet stores, used in fish tank filtration. I bought a 5 oz container for $5.99.

[Sam Farrington]

There was a good show on PBS about the nanotubes, including a demo pulling a string of them from a container for over 12 feet.
But "nano-activated" – my eye.

[Andrew Schriner]

Activated charcoal is useful in water treatment because of its incredibly high surface area to volume ratio – it has lots of "active" sites for things in the water to get stuck to. "Nano" here just sounds like marketing nonsense – maybe the pores running through granules of AC are on the order of nanometers in diameter, so let's call it "NANO!!". But whether they are or aren't, the principal is the same – high surface area for high adsorption, and I doubt there's anything special about "NANO!!" here. Just a buzzword right now. I would say just get whatever AC you can get for cheap.

Nanotubes and "nano" activated carbon are not really related except that they refer to being "small".

[Jerry Adams]

According to wikipedia, regular activated charcoal has "many areas where flat surfaces of graphite-like material run parallel to each other, separated by only a few nanometers or so"

Sounds like all activated charcoal could be called "nano"

[Ike Mouser]

i guess my powder could be considered nano then .

[Andrew Schriner]

yep, i think that's the takeaway

[Greg Mihalik]

If you are only thinking in terms of dimensions, then particles that are nano meters in size fall into the 'nano' category.

Most "regular" carbon has bonds that are random. In the case of graphite, bonds are primarily in one plane, and occasional bonds extending to planes above are below. These inter-plane are easily broken, providing a 'lubricating' effect. But all carbon has tremendous porosity or surface area, hence the ability to collect and filter.

If you are thinking in terms of the structural arrangement of nanotubes you are talking about something very different.

At a cost of $100 to $500 per Gram, it leads to a somewhat expensive filter.

Edit: Oops – I just found some 'short' nanotubes at $20/gram. So not so bad after all.

[Troy Childs]

This is overkill. In a filtration system that is one way it may have applications. However, I just use two bottles and flow back and forth over and over until it tastes right. For this reason I don't worry about how effective it is in one pass. The amount of activated carbon needed for single pass filtration is too heavy, nano or otherwise.

Buy some very fine carbon and you'll be fine. Similar to the size of coffee grounds.

[Ike Mouser]

if your talking about weight, i have about 1.9oz of carbon in my filter and thats alot. I dont consider it heavy. i imagine the same space taken up by powdered AC would probably be 3oz or so, and i wouldn't consider that heavy either.

If powdered AC will get me that 1-pass perfectly clean water like in the videos above i'll go for that. May have to get smalelr than 1 micron material though.

[Andrew Schriner]

I hope you are not basing your water treatment strategy solely on what you see in youtube videos…

It's not really something to be taken lightly. Waterborne illnesses can be really nasty. Make sure you really know what you're doing before putting all your eggs in a homemade basket.

Do you have any idea what the removal effectiveness of your setup will be? How will you know when the activated carbon has been used up (i.e. all of the adsorption sites are taken), because when that happens, the water will just pass through without getting cleaner.

[Ike Mouser]

i have always used chemical treatments before filtering.

[Ike Mouser]

the carbon filter is for removing the chems, colors,tastes, pesticides, etc.

[Andrew Schriner]

Whew. Ok. All good.

[Ike Mouser]

ACtually i may be able to ditch my filter all together if I can obtain this material:

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/activated_carbon_fiber_cloth

Right now i use a prefilter made out of 1-micron material that i just pour my water into, aligning it over the dirty bag and letting it fall right in. Works good. Well if i can use this material, I can sew 1-2 layers of it onto my current prefilter and maybe ditch my GAC filter all together. Without a doubt it would be the lightest 1 micron removing carbon filter ever. The weight penalty would be practically nothing to sew on a few layers of that stuff. Only problem is i cant find a distributor that will sell it in small amounts. This is would significantly lighten my filtering setup.

[Greg Mihalik]

Unopened package. 25 grams.

First posted request here takes it, provided I get an immediate PM or e-mail as well.

Free to a good home. Just help out the next guy, when you get a chance.

Send me your address, and I'll mail it tomorrow.

PM, or direct to greg at smgm dot org

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