Practical and Sustainable Modification Method on Activated Carbon to Improve the Decolorization Process in the Acetaminophen Pharmaceutical Industry.

Decolorization plays an important part in the industrial production of acetaminophen (APAP) drugs. The impurities generated from the APAP pharmaceutical industry decolorization refining process were primarily separated and purified, and their structures were determined by MS and H NMR technology. Then the catalytic effects of three samples of modified powdered activated carbon (PAC) on APAP in heterogeneous solution systems and the adsorption catalysis system were systematically investigated, which indicated that PAC catalyzed the APAP oxidative coupling side reaction and thus increased the impurities in the APAP product.