Patent ID: 7893004

Claim:
An oxidation catalyst comprising an activated carbon which satisfies formula (I): 4000<S×(O co ) (I) wherein S represents a BET specific surface area (m 2 /g) and Oco represents a percent by weight of the amount of surface oxygen which will leave in the form of carbon monoxide to the activated carbon determined by the following method: the method for determining Oco: about 3 g of activated carbon is weighed out and is placed in a quartz tube with an inner diameter of about 25 mm and a length of about 100 cm; the quartz tube is inserted into a temperature-controllable tube furnace, which is then heated from room temperature to 900° C. over 30 minutes and is held at that temperature for 30 minutes while nitrogen gas is caused to flow at a rate of 0.1 L/min; the whole portion of the gas exhausted during this process is collected and the quantity of carbon monoxide is determined with a gas chromatography equipped with a methane converter; then, the percent by weight of the quantity of the oxygen contained in the carbon monoxide to the quantity of the activated carbon is calculated.