Medical
Activated carbon is used to treat poisonings and overdoses following oral ingestion. Tablets or capsules of activated carbon are used in many countries as an over-the-counter drug to treat diarrhea, indigestion, and flatulence. and is particularly effective against poisonings of strong acids or bases, cyanide, iron, lithium, arsenic, methanol, ethanol or ethylene glycol. Activated carbon will prevent these chemicals from being absorbed into the human body. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Analytical chemistry
Activated carbon, in 50% w/w combination with celite, is used as stationary phase in low-pressure chromatographic separation of carbohydrates (mono-, di-, tri-saccharides) using ethanol solutions (5–50%) as mobile phase in analytical or preparative protocols.
Activated carbon is useful for extracting the direct oral anticoagulants[ænti:kə'ʊæɡjʊlənts] (DOACs) such as dabigatran, apixaban, rivaroxaban and edoxaban from blood plasma samples. For this purpose it has been made into "minitablets", each containing 5 mg activated carbon for treating 1ml samples of DOAC. Since this activated carbon has no effect on blood clotting factors, heparin or most other anticoagulants this allows a plasma sample to be analyzed for abnormalities otherwise affected by the DOACs.
|
Type |
Moisture content |
Hardness |
Apparent density g/L |
Iodine number mg/g |
Methyl blue mg/g |
Ash content |
Particle size/mm |
|
Columnar 30 |
≤5% |
≥91% |
450-550 |
850-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
3 |
|
Columnar 25 |
≤5% |
≥91% |
450-550 |
850-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
2.5 |
|
Columnar 20 |
≤5% |
≥91% |
450-550 |
850-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
1.5 |
|
Columnar 15 |
≤5% |
≥91% |
450-550 |
850-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
2 |
|
Crushed 8×16 Mesh |
≤5% |
≥91% |
420-480 |
900-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
1.5-2.5 |
|
Crushed 8×30 Mesh |
≤5% |
≥91% |
420-480 |
900-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
0.6-2 |
|
Crushed 12×40 Mesh |
≤5% |
≥91% |
400-460 |
900-1100 |
≥120 |
10%-15% |
0.4-1.5 |
|
Extruded 8×4 Mesh |
≤5% |
≥95% |
380-440 |
1000-1200 |
≥160 |
5%-10% |
2.5-4 |
|
Extruded 8×16 Mesh |
≤4% |
≥95% |
380-440 |
1000-1200 |
≥160 |
5%-10% |
1.5-2.5 |
|
Extruded 8×30 Mesh |
≤4% |
≥95% |
380-440 |
1000-1200 |
≥160 |
5%-10% |
0.6-2 |
|
Extruded 12×40 Mesh |
≤4% |
≥95% |
380-440 |
1000-1200 |
≥160 |
5%-10% |
0.4-1.5 |
