Wood‐Derived Ultrathin Carbon Nanofiber Aerogels

Abstract

Carbon aerogels with 3D networks of interconnected nanometer-sized particles exhibit fascinating physical properties and show great application potential. Efficient and sustainable methods are required to produce high-performance carbon aerogels on a large scale to boost their practical applications. An economical and sustainable method is now developed for the synthesis of ultrathin carbon nanofiber (CNF) aerogels from the wood-based nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) aerogels via a catalytic pyrolysis process, which guarantees high carbon residual and well maintenance of the nanofibrous morphology during thermal decomposition of the NFC aerogels. The wood-derived CNF aerogels exhibit excellent electrical conductivity, a large surface area, and potential as a binder-free electrode material for supercapacitors. The results suggest great promise in developing new families of carbon aerogels based on the controlled pyrolysis of economical and sustainable nanostructured precursors.

Sustainable Printed Electrochemical Platforms for Greener Analytics

“…Other carbonaceous materials from biomass have already been used for electrode production (Ferreira et al, 2018;João et al, 2020;Rocha et al, 2020). Li et al (2018) proposed electrically conductive and mechanically stable carbon nanofiber aerogels made from wood-derived nanofibrillated cellulose. Minakshi et al (2020) presented a hybrid electrochemical device produced by calcinated eggshell obtained from biowaste with a mixed binary metal oxide (NiO/Co 3 O 4 ) to obtain, respectively, the anode and the cathode of such device.…”

High-Yield Production of Lignin-Derived Functional Carbon Nanosheet for Dye Adsorption

“…However, it is also worth noting that the product yield is readily low at high carbonization temperatures. TsOH was found as an excellent pyrolysis catalyst to guarantee high carbon residual and well maintenance of the nanofibrous morphology during thermal decomposition of the nanofibrous carbon aerogels [8], which may also work for lignin carbonization. To verify this hypothesis, 5% TsOH was introduced into the lignin precursor to increase the product yield.…”

“…Known that, rhodamine dye, a highly carcinogenic substance widely used as a colorant in the manufacturing of textiles and food products, could lead to subcutaneous tissue bore sarcoma [4,5]. As a result, the development of the adsorbents, which are usually produced from coal or wood, with high adsorption capacity for pollutant control has drawn extensive attention [6][7][8]. Increasingly expected, agricultural, renewable and low-cost materials or even organic wastes as hemicelluloses, cellulose, coconuts husk, and lignin should be of priority [9][10][11][12].…”

Self-assembly and metal-directed assembly of organic semiconductor aerogels and conductive carbon nanofiber aerogels with controllable nanoscale morphologies

“…More recently, a method utilizing nanofibrillated cellulose derived from wood was developed, but a number of processing steps are required in order to synthesize CNF aerogels from wood pulp 32 . The aforementioned carbon aerogels, as well as graphene aerogels are assembled in one reaction step and subsequent heat treatment, and a more direct route to CNF aerogels is required to incorporate them into practical applications.…”