Highly crystalline graphite-like carbon from wood via low-temperature catalytic graphitization

In this study, we investigated the synthesis of wood-sawdust-derived high-crystalline graphite-like carbon. The sawdust was first impregnated with Fe and semi-carbonized by a hydrothermal treatment (HT) at 250 degrees C, followed by the second carbonization under N-2 atmosphere and acid washing. For an iron-to-sawdust weight ratio of 4:10, graphite-like carbon was synthesized at a very low temperature of 850 degrees C. This carbon has an average interlayer distance and crystallite size (d(002) : 0.337 nm, La: 35.8 nm, and Lc: 56.1 nm) comparable to those of commercial graphite. The large size of the Fe crystal particles facilitates the development of a stacked structure of carbon sheets. The HT with Fe-impregnated sawdust generates larger iron oxide particles than simple semi-carbonization with Fe-impregnated sawdust under N-2 atmosphere at 250 degrees C, facilitating the development of more crystalline graphite-like carbon. It was also found that the crystallinity of the graphitic carbon obtained after second carbonization may be controlled by the amount and particle size of the added Fe. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)