Abstract
Graphite is a widely used fossil material valued for its versatility, thanks to its excellent thermal and electrical conductivity as well as high chemical stability. Producing graphitic carbon from biomass offers a promising alternative to fossil graphite, but the process requires extremely high temperatures—up to 3000 °C—leading to significant energy consumption. In this work, we report a greener and more sustainable low-temperature method (900 °C) for the synthesis of highly graphitized biomass carbon using pure boron as a catalyst and logging residues (LR) as a carbon source. The work focuses on the correlation between the structural transformation of the precursors into graphitic carbon and their corresponding electrochemical characteristics as electrodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and supercapacitors. The carbons were prepared in two steps, i.e., carbonization at 500 °C with boron, followed by activation with KOH at 900 °C. A control carbon, produced using the same method but without boron, was used for comparison. The physicochemical characterization results demonstrated the successful graphitization of the LR-based carbon. In addition, the carbon materials exhibited highly porous structures with specific surface areas (BET) of 2645 m 2 g -1 for the boron-treated carbon (BCLR), and 3141 m 2 g -1 for the control carbon (CLR). The CLR and BCLR electrodes tested in LIBs delivered specific capacities of 386 and 505 mAh g -1 at a 1 C rate at the end of 200 cycles, respectively. CLR and BCLR electrodes were also tested for supercapacitors, delivering specific capacitances of 87 and 144 F g -1 at a current rate of 1 A g -1, respectively. This work opens a gateway for a straightforward and cost-effective synthesis method for scaling up biomass-based carbon electrodes for LIBs and supercapacitors, facilitating sustainable precursors and an industrially viable approach.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 100762 |
| Journal | Chemical Engineering Journal Advances |
| Volume | 22 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2025 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
This work was supported by the financial support of the EU/Interreg Aurora (Project GreenBattery, grant no. 20357574), EU/Interreg Aurora (Project: Nature Refines, grant no. 20361711), the Swedish Research Council FORMAS (grant no. 2021–00877), and Kempestiftelserna (grant no. JCSMK23–0145). AG, SSP, and MT thank Bio4Energy - a Strategic Research Environment appointed by the Swedish government and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Glaydson dos Simoes Reis gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Research Council of Finland (Academy Research Fellows 2024, Project: Bio-Adsorb&Energy, grant No. 361583). This work was supported by the financial support of the EU/Interreg Aurora (Project GreenBattery, grant no 20,357,574), EU/Interreg Aurora (Project: Nature Refines, grant no. 20361711), the Swedish Research Council FORMAS (grant no. 2021–00877), and Kempestiftelserna (grant no. JCSMK23–0145). AG, SSP, and MT thank Bio4Energy - a Strategic Research Environment appointed by the Swedish government and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Glaydson dos Simoes Reis gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Research Council of Finland (Academy Research Fellows 2024, Project: Bio-Adsorb&Energy, grant No. 361583). The authors also acknowledge Business Finland for research funding 2021–2024, the University of Oulu (BATCircle2.0, No. 44612/31/2020).