Formation of Functional Carbonaceous Materials via Iron Oxide-Assisted Hydrothermal Carbonization

Functionalized carbon materials can be synthesized from biomass feedstock using a simple hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) technique. Glucose was selected as the model biomass compound and the starting material for the synthesis of functionalized carbon materials. Iron oxide (Fe3O4) catalyst was introduced in the HTC system, and the effects of the catalyst toward the formation and yield of functionalized carbon materials were investigated. In the present study, the samples synthesized via HTC with and without iron oxide catalyst were characterized in detail (i.e., XRD, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and ultimate CHNS elemental analyzer). Results demonstrated that incorporating iron oxide catalyst was equally effective in both functionalization and acceleration of the HTC reactions (hydrolysis, degradation, and re-polymerization) for the carbon formation. Such findings indicated that the formation of functionalized carbon materials with controllable properties has great potential in energy applications, such as H-2 storage media and supercapacitor materials.