Automated Laboratory Kilogram-Scale Graphene Production from Coal

Lucas Eddy; Duy Xuan Luong; Jacob L Beckham; Kevin M Wyss; Tyler J Cooksey; Phelecia Scotland; Chi Hun Choi; Weiyin Chen; Paul A Advincula; Zhiyong Zhang; Vladimir Mancevski; Carter Kittrell; Yimo Han; James M Tour

doi:10.1002/smtd.202301144

Automated Laboratory Kilogram-Scale Graphene Production from Coal

Small Methods. 2024 Mar;8(3):e2301144. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202301144. Epub 2023 Nov 27.

Authors

Lucas Eddy^{1

2}, Duy Xuan Luong^{1

2

3}, Jacob L Beckham², Kevin M Wyss², Tyler J Cooksey³, Phelecia Scotland⁴, Chi Hun Choi⁴, Weiyin Chen², Paul A Advincula², Zhiyong Zhang³, Vladimir Mancevski², Carter Kittrell², Yimo Han⁴, James M Tour^{2

4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Applied Physics Graduate Program and Smalley-Curl Institute, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
³ Universal Matter Inc., Houston, 900 S Loop W Suite 175, Houston, TX, 77054, USA.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
⁵ The NanoCarbon Center and The Rice Advanced Materials Institute, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.
⁶ Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.

PMID: 38009769
DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202301144

Abstract

The flash Joule heating (FJH) method converts many carbon feedstocks into graphene in milliseconds to seconds using an electrical pulse. This opens an opportunity for processing low or negative value resources, such as coal and plastic waste, into high value graphene. Here, a lab-scale automation FJH system that allows the synthesis of 1.1 kg of turbostratic flash graphene from coal-based metallurgical coke (MC) in 1.5 h is demonstrated. The process is based on the automated conversion of 5.7 g of MC per batch using an electrical pulse width modulation system to conduct the bottom-up upcycle of MC into flash graphene. This study then compare this method to two other scalable graphene synthesis techniques by both a life cycle assessment and a technoeconomic assessment.

Keywords: automation; flash Joule heating; graphene; kilogram-scale; life cycle assessment.

Abstract

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