TY - JOUR A1 - Hunter, R. D. A1 - Rowlandson, J. L. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Ting, V. P. A1 - Kulak, A. A1 - Schnepp, Z. T1 - The effect of precursor structure on porous carbons produced by iron-catalyzed graphitization of biomass JF - Materials Advances N2 - This paper reports a systematic study into the effect of different biomass-derived precursors on the structure and porosity of carbons prepared via catalytic graphitization. Glucose, starch and cellulose are combined with iron nitrate and heated under a nitrogen atmosphere to produce Fe3C nanoparticles, which catalyze the conversion of amorphous carbon to graphitic nanostructures. The choice of organic precursor provides a means of controlling the catalyst particle size, which has a direct effect on the porosity of the material. Cellulose and glucose produce mesoporous carbons, while starch produces a mixture of micro- and mesopores under the same conditions and proceeds via a much slower graphitization step, generating a mixture of graphitic nanostructures and turbostratic carbon. Porous carbons are critical to energy applications such as batteries and electrocatalytic processes. For These applications, a simple and sustainable route to those carbons is essential. Therefore, the ability to control the precise structure of a biomass-derived carbon simply through the choice of precursor will enable the production of a new generation of energy materials. KW - SAXS KW - Porous carbons KW - Graphitization KW - Iron nanoparticles KW - Catalysis KW - Gas sorption PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-515531 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ma00692k VL - Royal Society of Chemistry SP - 1 EP - 11 AN - OPUS4-51553 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hunter, R. D. A1 - Hayward, E. C. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Kulak, A. A1 - Guan, S. A1 - Schnepp, Z. T1 - The effect of nitrogen on the synthesis of porous carbons by iron-catalyzed graphitization JF - Materials Advances N2 - This paper reports a systematic study into the effect of nitrogen on iron-catalyzed graphitization of biomass. Chitin, chitosan, N-acetylglucosamine, gelatin and glycine were selected to represent nitrogen-rich saccharides and amino-acid/polypeptide biomass precursors. The materials were pyrolyzed with an iron catalyst to produce carbons with a wide range of chemical and structural features such as mesoporosity and nitrogen-doping. Many authors have reported the synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbons by pyrolysis and these have diverse applications. However, this is the first systematic study of how nitrogen affects pyrolysis of biomass and importantly the catalytic graphitization step. Our data demonstrates that nitrogen inhibits graphitization but that some nitrogen survives the catalytic graphitization process to become incorporated into various chemical environments in the carbon product. KW - Graphitization KW - Nanoparticles KW - Nanocomposite KW - Porous carbon KW - Nitrogen KW - Scattering PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-575351 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3ma00039g VL - 4 SP - 2070 EP - 2077 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-57535 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -