Wiyanti Fransisca Simanullang, Rungkiat Nganglumpoon, Suthasinee Watmanee, Piriya Pinthong, Weerachon Tolek, Yan Liu, Joongjai Panpranot
Nanocrystalline carbon materials exhibit promising potential for sustainable and high-performance applications in electronics, energy storage, and environmental technologies. While sugars are abundant and renewable, converting them to graphitic carbon usually requires high temperature treatment. Here, we present a groundbreaking approach for synthesizing nanocrystalline carbon from readily available sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose at ambient pressure and temperature. This novel method involves electrochemical reduction on a negatively charged Ag surface coupled with intermolecular dehydration between the organic precursors. By applying relatively low potentials ranging from −1.2 to −1.6 V vs. Ag/AgCl, and with the presence of hydrogen peroxide, oxygenic carbon precursors are efficiently transformed into nanocrystalline hybrid carbon structures. The role of hydrogen peroxide is pivotal in expediting hydrogen abstraction and facilitating the formation of 3D-nanostructured carbon allotropes. Characterization results based on Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy-selected area electron diffraction (TEM-EDX-SAED), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and grazing incidence-X-ray diffraction (GI-XRD) confirm the presence of mixed nanocrystalline sp2-sp3 hybridization in the resulting carbon materials. Moreover, this method's versatility extends beyond sugars to include alcohols, polyols, and polyphenolic compounds like ethanol, glycerol, and tannic acid, broadening its potential for biomass valorization. © 2024 RSC.
Center of Excellence on Catalysis and Catalytic Reaction Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; Research Center for Chemistry, National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta, 10340, Indonesia; Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University, Surabaya, 60112, Indonesia; CrystalLyte Co., Ltd., Research Unit 904, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; Catalysis & Green Process Engineering Division, Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, 1 Pesek Road, Jurong Island, 627833, Singapore; Bio-Circular-Green-economy Technology & Engineering Center (BCGeTEC), Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand