Physico-chemical Characteristics of Fine Nano-scaled Carbon Fibers from Bacterial Cellulose

Abstract

<p class="p1">Recently, carbon nanofibers have gained immense attention in research due to its tremendous application. Here, this work highlights a simple, cost effective and reliable method to develop carbon nanofibers (CNF) from biomass. The biomass used is bacterial cellulose (BC) synthesized using <em>Acetobacter xylinus</em>. CNF was developed by freeze drying of BC followed by pyrolysis at different temperatures (300ºC - 900ºC). The conversions of BC to CNF were characterized using SEM, FTIR, TGA and XRD respectively. The results exhibit three dimensional, lightweight, fine nanoscale fibers with a diameter of 10nm which are tend to have hydrophobic and lipophilic characters, due to which it can be used in oil – water separation applications.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>