Solubility

• Charcoal is carbon while activated charcoal is charcoal treated with oxygen to open up millions of tiny pores between the carbon atoms. Charcoal does not fully dissolve in water but is often used to purify it. Charcoal being an allotrope of carbon and others like graphite diamond, buckyball and buckytubes are elemental carbon at room temperature. Elemental carbon does not dissolve in solvents but it reacts with oxygen and other different oxidizing agents to form carbonates and carbonites.