Preparation of high-porosity biomass-based carbon electrodes by selective laser sintering

Selective-laser-sintering (SLS) three-dimensional (3D) printing technology was used to fabricate highly porous biomass-based carbon electrodes, which were prepared using pine wood powder mixed with phenolic resin as the SLS printing material. The pinewood powder content in the mixture was varied from 30 to 50 wt% to find the correlation between pinewood content and electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. The 3D-printed precursors were carbonized in a tubular sintering furnace to finally obtain SLS biomass porous carbon electrodes. The physical properties, microstructure, pore distribution, and electrical conductivity of the printed porous carbon electrodes were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electrical conductivity tests. The results indicate that highly customized carbon electrodes with high porosity can be fabricated using pine composites in combination with the SLS 3D printing process.