Received: January 31st, 2023 ; Accepted: June 16th, 2023 ; Published: July 6th, 2023 ; Correspondence: [email protected] the European Union, up to 200 thousand tons (Zoccola et al., 2015) of sheep wool
fibres, that are not used for textile fabrication, are a secondary by-product with wide field of
application possibilities, including preparation of activated carbon. Taking into account, that wool
fibres can be stored for long time, under impact of the local climate conditions (including low
temperatures) before their application, for example, under variety of temperature, presence of air
and light, different moisture conditions, it is necessary to estimate the impact of wool’s storage
conditions on the preparation of activated carbon. In the present work, various parameters, such
as, temperature, presence of air and daylight as well as humidity, were selected for comparison.
After storage of wool fibres under selected various conditions, thermogravimetry/differential
thermal analysis (TG/DTA) followed by with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry
were used in order to estimate the impact of each parameter on the thermal decomposition
processes: release of moisture, sulphur and nitrogen containing compounds and oxidative
degradation followed by release of carbon dioxide. It was estimated, that one year of storage
under varying conditions does not significantly affect the thermal decomposition properties of
the wool fibres. However, minor impact of humidity absorbed from air on wool is observed. Wool
samples that were stored at elevated humidity gave higher residual carbon yield (R) in comparison
to the fibres stored in dry conditions. The obtained results are used to develop recommendations
for preparation of activated carbon from wool fibres and for its application in air filtrating
systems
