Does activated carbon adsorb beneficial minerals in water?

Activated carbon has a clear preference for the adsorption of different substances, being more adept at adsorbing non-polar or weakly polar substances such as organics, residual chlorine and odour molecules in water. The pore structure inside the activated carbon is divided into different jobs. Micropores can adsorb small molecules such as chlorine and phenol, while mesopores are used to deal with slightly larger molecules such as some pigments, and substances that are insoluble in water are more easily adsorbed by activated carbon. Minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium in water, on the other hand, will exist in the form of strongly charged ions, such as Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ , which are highly soluble inorganic substances. The properties of these minerals are completely opposite to the adsorption preferences of activated carbon, resulting in a very poor adsorption effect of activated carbon on them. So don't worry about granular activated carbon for water treatment, industrial activated carbon filter, activated carbon filter water purifier and so on will absorb the beneficial minerals in the water.

 

Research has found that activated carbon can hardly absorb the calcium and magnesium ions in water, and the adsorption rate is usually less than 5%. The change in mineral content before and after filtering water with activated carbon is very small, up to 10% difference, and this change is basically negligible for the human body. Why activated carbon is difficult to adsorb minerals? It is because mineral ions are positively charged, activated carbon surface negatively charged, the two are a little mutually exclusive; mineral ions in the water will be wrapped by water molecules, the volume becomes larger, can not drill into the activated carbon holes; there is a residual chlorine, pesticides, these dirty things are more likely to be adsorbed by the activated carbon, the first full of adsorption position, the minerals will have no chance to be adsorbed.

 

However, if the activated carbon has not been replaced for a long time (more than 3 - 6 months), it may release a very small amount of minerals when it is saturated with adsorption, but its effect is almost negligible.