Biomass Conversion to Functionalized Carbon

Biomass Conversion to Functionalized Carbon

Masoudeh Ahmadi, Jacek Jasinski, Jagannadh Stayavolu, Mahendra Sunkara^*

Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville KY 40292, United States

*Corresponding Author: mksunk01@exchange.louisville.edu

In this research emphasis is placed on the applied methodology to produce functionalized carbon from hemp agriculture by products. We have studied an effective, economic, and novel technology to transform lignocellulosic biomass into the functionalized carbon. The effects of various parameters on the preparation such as carbonization methodology and impregnation ratio were studied and their effects on the textural properties such as surface area, pore volume and crystalline structure were discussed. There has been a large amount of research and interest in the conversion of biomass to carbons for various applications. However, the challenges remain both in terms of processing time scale and also with the ability to tune the resulting carbonÕs properties. In addition, the functionalization schemes for using the resulting carbons toward catalyst schemes require additional development. The challenges in utilizing carbon supports for catalysts include uniform dispersion of active catalyst metals and metal oxide clusters and improved catalyst and support interactions.

In this study, Hemp fibers were mixed with KOH solution with different impregnation ratio. Then carbonization was done in a horizontal tube furnace under nitrogen flow at 700ûC for one hour. Textural and chemical properties for the samples were investigated by means of XRD, SEM, BET, FTIR and XPS. The textural properties of carbon were found to be strongly dependent on the carbonization method and impregnation ratio. Reduction technique was used to load Pt particles on to the resulting carbon structures using tetraammine platinum nitrate as Pt precursor. The carbon supports were first impregnated with tetraammine platinum nitrate to produce 5%wt Pt/C. The mixture was further dried overnight at 100 ¡C followed by reduction under flowing hydrogen at 450¡C for 2 h using tube furnace to remove the ligands of the precursor and to reduce the metal to its active elemental state. In this presentation, various mechanistic models will be presented on the carbonization of biomass using different means.