(264e) 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.