Preparation of activated carbon from babassu endocarpunder microwave radiation by physical activation

Babassu endocarp were used to prepare activated carbons by physical activation via microwave radiation for the first time. The pyrolysis temperature was 600°C and the derived biochar were activated in CO2atmosphereat 700, 750 and 800°C for 30 min. The material was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The porous properties of the activated carbons obtained including the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, pore volume, and average pore diameter were determined by nitrogen adsorption isotherms at 77.32 K. The experimental results showed that most pores occurred during the activation predominantly as micropores. Endocarp babassu can be used as precursor to produce activated carbon with a rather well-developed porosity by pyrolysis and physical activation by two-steps with CO2 activation via microwaves radiation. The activated carbon, with a low production cost, could be suitable for applications in gaseous pollutant adsorption, adsorb iodine, methylene blue, and residual chlorine

Consumer Choice Under Limited Attention When Options Have Different Information Costs

Consumers often do not have complete information about the choices they face and therefore have to spend time and effort in acquiring information. Since information acquisition is costly, consumers have to trade-off the value of better information against its cost, and make their final choices based on imperfect information. We model this decision using the rational inattention approach and describe the rationally inattentive consumer's choice behavior when she faces options with different information costs. To this end, we introduce an information cost function that distinguishes between direct and inferential information. We then analytically characterize the optimal behavior and derive the choice probabilities in closed-form. We find that non-uniform information costs can have a strong impact on product choice, which gets particularly conspicuous when the product alternatives are otherwise very similar. It can also lead to situations where it is disadvantageous for the seller to provide easier access to information for a particular product. Furthermore, it provides a new explanation for strong failure of regularity of consumer behaviour, which occurs if the addition of an inferior - never chosen - product to the choice set increases the market share of another existing product