Graphitic carbon from cellulosic materials: development and use

本工作探索了以纸浆和纤维素纳米材料为模板合成石墨化纳米碳中空管状结构。利用反转热解(ITD)方法，通过表面修饰改变了纤维素纳米材料的燃烧动力学。纤维素纳米材料的疏水性和盐饱和度影响其热降解行为，特别是着火成核点和传播速度。这种由改变纤维素纳米材料表面化学而带来的现象允许主体材料着火，留下纳米材料的表面结构。通过这种石墨化过程，可以得到石墨化纳米碳，并对其进行表征。纤维长宽比、结晶度、盐封闭、点火速度和局部氧气利用率等参数可以控制所得到的纳米结构。使用这一简便的工艺，并利用世界上最丰富的天然聚合物纤维素作为起始材料，这里提出的工作可能对未来环境可持续发展的石墨化纳米碳的生产产生深远的影响。我们的首要目标是为从自然资源中获得纳米碳奠定基础，在工业规模上生产从自然资源中提取的纳米碳，取代传统的纳米碳结构，并将自然合成的纳米碳纳入商业产品。

The synthesis of graphitic nanocarbon hollow tube-like structures utilizing pulp and cellulose nanomaterials as templates is explored in this work. Utilizing an inverting thermal degradation (iTD) method, the combustion kinetics of cellulose nanomaterials are altered through surface modifications. Hydrophobization and salt saturation of cellulose nanomaterials influence their thermal degradation behaviour, specifically ignition nucleating points and propagation rate. This phenomenon brought about by altering cellulose nanomaterials surface chemistry allowed for ignition of the bulk material, leaving behind the surface structure of the nanomaterial. Through this graphitization process, graphitic nanocarbon will be obtained and characterized. Several parameters including fibre aspect ratio, crystallinity, salt occlusion, ignition rate, and local oxygen availability can control the resulting nanostructure. Using this facile process and utilizing cellulose, the world's most abundant natural polymer, as the starting material, the work presented here could have profound implications for the future production of environmentally sustainable graphitic nanocarbon. Our overarching goal is to establish the fundamentals for obtaining nanocarbons from natural resources, produce nanocarbons derived from natural resources on industrial scale, replace conventional nanocarbon structures and incorporate naturally synthesized nanocarbons into commercial products.