Activated carbons for applications in catalysis: the point of view of a physical-chemist

This paper is a concise review on the principal physical–chemical techniques available to investigate the structural and surface properties of activated carbons (ACs) for catalytic applications. The same AC has been characterized by an incredible amount of techniques: Solid state-nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectroscopy for structural characterization, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, inelastic neutron scattering and FT-IR spectroscopy for surface analysis, instead. The main goal is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of all the techniques and to propose a multi-technique approach that should help in avoiding misinterpretations, as often found in the specialized literature.