Activated Charcoals. --- The Ultimate toxin magnet?

Hello guys, it's pan here again. This time, I would like to write about a really cool stuff I discovered just recently, and I've been on the lookout for this stuff since then because I think they could come in handy in some sticky situations.

I'm talking about activated charcoals.

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What's so special about Activated Charcoal?

Over the years, civilization has seen charcoal progress from being just that ordinary 'chaff' from coal and 'burnt' organic carbon-based materials to something processed and sold in mega-stores and malls. With the way it is marketed, you'd think its some kinda miracle powder. When I was in junior high, it was so common that we darkened our blackboard every day with it, with very limited knowledge of some of its other interesting values. Heck, who knew anyway? we were young. So when my teacher advised the dirtiest boy in my class then to brush his brown teeth with powdery charcoal, I had thought he was kidding him.

Well, No Kidding.

The News is that the wonders of charcoal are not new at all, its use can be traced back to ancient Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. They used Ordinary charcoal both as detoxifiers and for skin care, and modern science has continued from where these sapient civilizations stopped, subsequently coming up with activated charcoal.

According to Britannica Encyclopedia, Activated charcoal is charcoal that has been treated with heat and oxygen, so much that it rearranges the carbon atoms and opens up millions of tiny pores. This gives it a very large surface area (as a single gram could have anything between 500 to 1500 square metres of surface area) that's as much as a globe of over four stories tall. This "rearrangement" allows liquid and gases to pass through and interact with the exposed carbon. The exposed carbon now chemically binds the impurities and contaminants contained in these substances to itself. This process is what we call Adsorption.

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Now, don't get it mixed up, Adsorption, which was coined by German physicist, Heinrich Kayser, in 1881, really is different from absorption (which involves chemicals getting trapped "inside" something, say, water soaked with a rag.), Adsorption has to do with molecules binding to the surface of another compound, like the carbon-lined pores in our activated charcoal.

The science behind it.

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The photo above shows how molecules of dirt/toxins gets adsorbed by the activated charcoal. The molecules bind because of the Van der Daals forces, (the weak attractive force present in uncharged molecules). Basically, depending on where the electrons are, one side of a molecule might be more electrically charged than the other, even if a molecule doesn't have an overall charge. So when a molecule passes through the tiny pores in the activated charcoal, those very weak forces make it cling to the carbon. Pretty cool huh?

For folks getting bored by all these science jargons, Adsorption involves chemical attraction or binding. Because of the numerous bonding pores on the surface area, it now possesses the ability to attach and consequently trap certain elements that pass next to the carbon surface. Most of these trapped elements are often carbon-based (Which of course, several toxins are made up of), while those elements that are not carbon-based pass through, or are ignored, like a notorious busybody.

And in case you're wondering, ordinary charcoal differs from activated charcoal though. While ordinary charcoal is produced through Pyrolysis, - That is, a process where an organic material containing carbon is heated to high temperature in the absence of oxygen until this material decomposes; activated charcoal, however, is treated with steam or chemicals and subjected to high temperatures in order to increase the pores on the surface area. Thus, Ordinary charcoal that is not activated does not have adsorptive abilities.

Meanwhile, Activated charcoal is odourless, tasteless, and non-toxic, and can be used for food colouring, or contained in edible products.

Going outside the headache-inducing physics realm, Activated charcoal, also know as activated carbon, is a recognised medicine, listed by WHO on the list of its essential medicines (According to Wiki)

So, activated charcoal works through adsorption and not absorption, just a reiteration, for the knuckleheads. When introduced to the body as a filter, it soaks up and consequently assimilates elements into the bloodstream, instead of absorbing them. It traps elements like nutrients, toxins, and chemicals in its many pores.

Uses and importance.

To many people, The advantages and uses of activated charcoal seem to lie somewhere in between awesome to unbelievable. However, science hardly ever lies, so let's see a few of these uses.

For commercial purposes, Activated charcoal has proved useful as a medicine for the treatment of some cases of poisoning, drug or substance overdose, and gastrointestinal disorders. It also acts as a detoxifier and cleanses the digestive system.

But even though Activated charcoal is reputed to be useful in treating acute poisoning, it doesn't cure poisoning related to strong acids and bases such as alcohol, cyanide, and lithium. So it probably won't be a good idea to drink yourself to stupor and swallow a whole pack of activated charcoal.

It is also useful for purification and filtration purposes. For water filtration, it traps impurities found in water. While for alcohol, it can be used to purify Vodka and other alcoholic drinks. However, activated charcoal does not have antiseptic abilities, -it does not kill viruses or bacterium found in water. One would still have to boil their drinking water.

Also, activated charcoal is pretty darn useful in maintaining good oral health. It rids the mouth of offensive odour and gum diseases. It is also used for teeth whitening. (I suppose this is some good news for smokers, imagine eating your cake and having it all.)

For skin maintenance, activated charcoal has been scientifically proven to contain anti-aging properties. Enough revelation to dump those expensive facial scrubs and facial masks for this less expensive alternative don't you think?
Furthermore, it reduces high cholesterol in the body. It has also proved useful in the treatment of Cholestasis.

However, when ingested through the mouth, some of the side effects associated with activated charcoal may include black stools, diarrhea, pneumonitis, and constipation. Also, when spilled in a liquid state, the stain may prove almost impossible to get off a fabric or surface. So be careful with it.

Conclusion.

As clearly stated above, there really isn't any magic to it. It's just good ol' science at it again. And while it isn't a panacea for every disease and toxins, it really could help. And what's more, It’s 100% natural, and safe to use for a vast majority of people.

So, what do you think guys? one too many applications and uses here? I would doubt that. Have your say below.

Thank you for reading,

@pangoli

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References:

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