Sugar charcoal
{{Short description|Pure form of carbon produced from sugar}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2022}}
{{distinguish|Coal candy}}
Sugar charcoal is formed by the charring of cane sugar, which was repeatedly recrystallized to remove any organic impurities.{{Cite journal |last1=Bartell |first1=F. E. |last2=Miller |first2=E. J. |title=Adsorption by Activated Sugar Charcoal. I1 |date=September 1922 |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja01430a004 |journal=Journal of the American Chemical Society |language=en |volume=44 |issue=9 |pages=1866–1880 |doi=10.1021/ja01430a004 |issn=0002-7863|url-access=subscription }} It is also prepared by the dehydration of sugar in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid. Since sulfuric acid is a dehydrating agent, it absorbs water from the sugar and leaves behind black residue of carbon. It is the purest form of amorphous carbon.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}
Use
Since sugar charcoal is a method of producing very pure carbon it is used to prepare artificial diamonds. When heated strongly at high temperature (3000-3500 °C) and high pressure, it is converted into an artificial diamond.
It is used as a reducing agent in the process of extraction of metals.
Sugar charcoal has decolourizing properties, which means it removes some dyes, such as methylene blue, from water.
References
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