Graphene-containing biocarbon from burlap waste: Property comparison with commercial grade graphene nanoplatelets
Haftom Weldekidan,
Amar K. Mohanty,
Lawrence T. Drzal,
Manjusri Misra
Affiliations
Haftom Weldekidan
Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Crop Science Building, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada; School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 80 South Ring Road E, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
Amar K. Mohanty
Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Crop Science Building, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada; School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 80 South Ring Road E, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada
Lawrence T. Drzal
Composite Materials and Structures Center, Michigan State University, 2100 Engineering Building, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA
Manjusri Misra
Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Crop Science Building, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada; School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Thornbrough Building, 80 South Ring Road E, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada; Corresponding author.
In this paper, we report a method for synthesizing high-yield graphene-containing biocarbon from burlap waste through a simple two-step carbonization process. The first step involves feedstock carbonization at 600 °C, followed by ball milling and then graphitization at 1200 °C using KOH. A comparative analysis between the obtained bio-graphene and commercial graphene revealed superior graphene properties of the burlap-based graphene. Notably, this bio-based graphene exhibited exceptional characteristics such as a very high BET surface area in the range of 1021 m²/g, low defect-to-graphene ratio of 0.12 in the Raman spectra, and an overall yield of 19% wt. These findings highlight the potential of burlap waste as a sustainable precursor for high-quality graphene synthesis and its potential for various applications.
