Upgraded Structure and Application of Coal-Based Graphitic Carbons Through Flash Joule Heating

Facilitating the transition and new application of fossil energy sources are crucial to attaining carbon neutrality. Conversion of coals into graphitic carbons represents an effective route to achieve their high-value utilization, while this process always involves corrosive/toxic chemical reagents and time-intensive heating treatment. Here, this work reports a green, rapid, and efficient flash Joule heating (FJH) technique to produce high-quality carbons from diverse coals within 1 s. The surface groups, defects, and graphitization degree of the resultant carbon materials are controlled during the instantaneous thermal shock process, and the relationships between the coal structures and the product properties are established. The results suggest that the anthracite with high coalification degree tends to form highly graphitic carbons at a peak temperature of approximate to 3300 K, presenting higher rate capability (79.1% capacity retention at 30 A g-1) and low relaxation time constant (tau 0 = 0.27 s) toward capacitive energy storage. Besides, the flash carbon materials derived from lignite and bituminous coal with low coal rank show better capacitive performance with capacity above 80 F g-1 at 1 A g-1. This study evidences that the FJH technology holds great potential to steer coals into valuable carbon materials. Graphitic carbons are produced from diverse coals using a green, rapid, and efficient flash Joule heating (FJH) method. The surface groups, defects, and graphitization degree of carbon materials are controlled and the structure evolution from diverse coal feedstocks to products are unveiled. Electrochemical tests reveal the relations between structure and capacitive properties of graphitic carbons. image