TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of Nanocrystalline Graphite from Lignin Sources
AU - García-Negrón, Valerie
AU - Chmely, Stephen C.
AU - Ilavsky, Jan
AU - Keffer, David J.
AU - Harper, David P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Nanotechnology Program Award No. 2017-67021-26599. We acknowledge the support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project 1012359. The authors thank Dr. Lin Yang who assisted with data collection at BNL during the access research proposals numbers 302870 and RA-301707. This research used resources from the LiX (16-ID) beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. The Center for BioMolecular Structure is primarily supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences through a Center Core P30 Grant (P30GM133893), and by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research (KP1605010). This research used resources from the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility, operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The authors thank Eduardo Ponce from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville for assisting with the processing of scattering data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2022/2/7
Y1 - 2022/2/7
N2 - Carbon composites are attractive to a variety of high-impact applications, such as carbon fibers, batteries, and vehicle parts, due to their multifunctional properties. The properties of carbon are highly dependent on the allotrope the carbon takes and the functionality, impurities, and defects contained within the structure. The increase in demand for sustainable carbon sources in energy storage devices motivates interest in understanding synthesis parameters of lignin value-added products. Also, as the dependence on oil for fuel decreases, alternative sources for carbon in many applications will be needed. In this work, the thermochemical conversion of lignin powders from different feedstocks was evaluated via small and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques to resolve the amorphous, disordered, and crystalline domains present in the lignin carbons. Scattering analyses indicated an evolution of hierarchical structures along with an increase in ordered domains as a function of carbonization temperature. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to describe isotropic scattering intensity profiles at multiple length scales. The use of power law models in the mesoscopic region served as the basis to describe morphological changes related to structural features, for example, graphene stacking, degree of roughness, and surface fractals. Kraft softwood and switchgrass produced carbon powder with the most crystalline domains and the least surface roughness. Softwoods reached the highest degree of crystallinity followed by switchgrass samples and had less variability in particle sizes. These results suggest lignin carbons extracted from softwoods and switchgrass are viable substitutes for graphite. Interpretation of X-ray scattering data from lignin carbon powders elucidates feedstock- and processing-dependent morphological features across multiple length scales providing a straightforward framework to evaluate the feasibility of leveraging lignin carbons for producing tunable application-specific materials.
AB - Carbon composites are attractive to a variety of high-impact applications, such as carbon fibers, batteries, and vehicle parts, due to their multifunctional properties. The properties of carbon are highly dependent on the allotrope the carbon takes and the functionality, impurities, and defects contained within the structure. The increase in demand for sustainable carbon sources in energy storage devices motivates interest in understanding synthesis parameters of lignin value-added products. Also, as the dependence on oil for fuel decreases, alternative sources for carbon in many applications will be needed. In this work, the thermochemical conversion of lignin powders from different feedstocks was evaluated via small and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques to resolve the amorphous, disordered, and crystalline domains present in the lignin carbons. Scattering analyses indicated an evolution of hierarchical structures along with an increase in ordered domains as a function of carbonization temperature. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to describe isotropic scattering intensity profiles at multiple length scales. The use of power law models in the mesoscopic region served as the basis to describe morphological changes related to structural features, for example, graphene stacking, degree of roughness, and surface fractals. Kraft softwood and switchgrass produced carbon powder with the most crystalline domains and the least surface roughness. Softwoods reached the highest degree of crystallinity followed by switchgrass samples and had less variability in particle sizes. These results suggest lignin carbons extracted from softwoods and switchgrass are viable substitutes for graphite. Interpretation of X-ray scattering data from lignin carbon powders elucidates feedstock- and processing-dependent morphological features across multiple length scales providing a straightforward framework to evaluate the feasibility of leveraging lignin carbons for producing tunable application-specific materials.
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U2 - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c05969
DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.1c05969
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85123343805
SN - 2168-0485
VL - 10
SP - 1786
EP - 1794
JO - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
JF - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
IS - 5
ER -
