Sustainable carbon materials

Abstract

Carbon-based structures are the most versatile materials used in the modern field of renewable energy (i.e., in both generation and storage) and environmental science (e.g., purification/remediation). However, there is a need and indeed a desire to develop increasingly more sustainable variants of classical carbon materials (e.g., activated carbons, carbon nanotubes, carbon aerogels, etc.), particularly when the whole life cycle is considered (i.e., from precursor "cradle" to "green" manufacturing and the product end-of-life "grave"). In this regard, and perhaps mimicking in some respects the natural carbon cycles/production, utilization of natural, abundant and more renewable precursors, coupled with simpler, lower energy synthetic processes which can contribute in part to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions or the use of toxic elements, can be considered as crucial parameters in the development of sustainable materials manufacturing. Therefore, the synthesis and application of sustainable carbon materials are receiving increasing levels of interest, particularly as application benefits in the context of future energy/chemical industry are becoming recognized. This review will introduce to the reader the most recent and important progress regarding the production of sustainable carbon materials, whilst also highlighting their application in important environmental and energy related fields.

Biomass-derived renewable carbon materials for electrochemical energy storage

“…In this context, renewable biomass and their derivatives are regarded as promising alternatives to replace traditional non-sustainable electrode materials, because of their intrinsic properties and advantages, such as environment-friendliness, natural abundance, diverse structures, inherent mechanical strength and flexibility, as well as their versatility to hybrid with other functional materials. Many efforts have been devoted to developing sustainable and high-performance electrode materials from biomass and their derivatives for energy conversion and storage devices [30,80], especially for supercapacitors with high power density and lithium-sulfur batteries with ultrahigh capacity. Renewable carbon materials derived from biomasses have demonstrated huge potential in improving the electrode performance for both supercapacitors and lithium-sulfur batteries.…”

“…Recently, inspired by natural processes (coalification and photosynthesis) and natural structures (shells and plant tissues), many efforts have been devoted to optimizing synthesis routes to produce activated carbon materials from renewable natural resources with intriguing nanostructures, with the hope to address the urgent energy challenge. In our previous work, we have successfully converted flexible, green and breathable cotton textile into activated carbon textile (ACT), which not only inherited the textile architecture and porous structure of cotton fiber, but also exhibited excellent conductivity and outstanding flexibility [30]. The obtained ACT has been proven to be an ideal flexible substrate to deposit active nanoparticles for flexible supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries [31][32][33][34].…”

Preparation of graphene-MoS2 hybrid aerogels as multifunctional sorbents for water remediation

“…Carbon-based three-dimensional (3D) architectures have attracted considerable attention in the past two decades due to their unique properties, such as huge surface area, interconnected porous structures, and macroscopic bulky shape, enabling them to be one of the most promising materials for water treatment [1][2][3][4][5][6]. However, the carbon-based 3D porous networks have limited compatibility and most of them only show affinity to certain category of contaminants [7][8][9][10][11].…”

Nitrogen Doped Graphene as Potential Material for Hydrogen Storage

“…A particularly significant application is in hydrogen-fueled vehicles [6]. The storage capacity for possible commercial utilization of hydrogen as energy source is 6.5 wt% as postulated by US-DOE (Department of energy) [7]. The US-department of energy has challenged energy storage research scientists to accomplish onboard vehicle hydrogen storage systems with 5.5 wt% hydrogen in 2020 with the ultimate target of 7.5 wt% hydrogen [8].…”

“…The US-department of energy has challenged energy storage research scientists to accomplish onboard vehicle hydrogen storage systems with 5.5 wt% hydrogen in 2020 with the ultimate target of 7.5 wt% hydrogen [8]. High surface area adsorbents such as porous carbon materials, metal-organic frameworks, and porous polymers are considered and assessed for this application [7] [9]. No candidate till today has possibly reached the US-DOE targets for hydrogen storage.…”