Engineered Monolithic Biocarbon as Next Generation Low-cost High-performance Nanoporous Carbon Materials for Sustainability

生物碳与生物炭相关，因为两者都植根于生物质，但在碳含量(生物碳和生物碳的90wt%C与生物炭的60-80wt%C)及其预期应用方面有所不同。具体地说，生物碳整体具有连续的碳基质和类似于其生物质前体的形态特征。在化学和结构上，它属于纳米多孔碳(NPC)家族，其中碳纳米管束或森林和集成石墨烯片(IGS)是众所周知的成员。虽然生物炭自古以来就被广泛用于土壤改良和碳中性固体燃料，但作为功能材料的生物炭整体的研究还处于起步阶段。大自然花了数百万年的时间来发展和完善分层的、相互联系的形态结构，这种结构有效地将水分和营养从根输送到单个细胞，并支持树木等生物群的生命。当生物质转化为生物碳时，这些形态特征中的大部分都被保留了下来。这项研究计划的长期总体目标是将木质生物质--一种极其丰富、未得到充分开发的自然资源--转化为工程生物碳整体--一种新型的低成本、高性能纳米多孔碳材料，用于包括新型净水技术和大规模高效储能装置在内的广泛应用。这些预期的进展将导致创造一种更具成本效益和更容易扩展的新类别的NPC材料。它们可以用来直接应对世界面临的两个最大挑战--可持续能源供应和气候变化。工程生物碳整体的创建和部署将大大降低成本，并提高NPC材料在现有和新兴应用中的性能，并可能开辟全新的应用领域。例如，经过改造的生物碳整体将使大规模、高性能的能量存储设备能够促进可再生能源(如太阳能和风能)的高效利用。由于生物碳中的碳来自大气，在环境条件下具有化学稳定性，因此大规模利用生物碳和生物炭是缓解气候变化的一种新战略。这项研究计划的预期进展将有助于使这一新战略产生更大的影响。这项研究计划不仅在创造新材料和新技术方面具有巨大的创新潜力，而且特别适合加拿大-一个拥有丰富的林业和农业生物质资源的国家。

Biocarbon is related to biochar as both are rooted in biomass, but differs in their carbon contents (biocarbon > 90 wt% C vs biochar ~ 60-80 wt% C) and in their intended applications. Biocarbon monoliths, specifically, have a continuous carbon matrix and morphological features that resemble their biomass precursors. Chemically and structurally, it belongs to the family of nanoporous carbons (NPCs) in which carbon nanotubes (CNTs) bundles or forests and integrated graphene sheets (IGSs) are well-known members. While biochar has been widely used for soil amendment and as carbon-neutral solid fuel since ancient time, the research in biocarbon monoliths as a functional material is still at its infancy. It took nature multiple millions of years to develop and perfect the hierarchical, inter-connected morphological structures that efficiently deliver water and nutrients from root to individual cells and support the life of biota such as a tree. When biomass is transformed into biocarbon, much of these morphological features are preserved. The long-term, overarching goal of this research program is to transform woody biomass - a hugely abundant, under-exploited natural resource - into engineered biocarbon monoliths - a new class of low-cost, high-performance nanoporous carbon materials, for a wide range of applications including novel water purification technologies and large-scale high-efficiency energy storage devices. The anticipated advances will lead to the creation of a new class of NPC materials that is more cost-effective and readily scalable. They can be used to directly address two of the greatest challenges the world is facing - sustainable energy supply and climate change. The creation and deployment of engineered biocarbon monoliths will substantially lower the cost and enhance the performance of NPC materials in existing and emerging applications and potentially open completely new application areas. For example, engineered biocarbon monoliths will enable the large-scale, high-performance energy storage devices that facilitate the high-efficiency utilization of energy from renewable sources (e.g. solar and wind). Since carbon in biocarbon originates from the atmosphere and is chemically stable under ambient condition, the large-scale utilization of biocarbon and, biochar in general, represents a new strategy for alleviating climate change. The anticipated advances from this research program will help make this new strategy even more impactful. This research program not only possesses tremendous innovation potential in creating new materials and technologies, but also is particularly relevant to Canada - a country blessed with rich biomass resources from forestry and agriculture sectors.