Microwave Synthesis, Characterization and Perspectives of Wood Pencil-Derived Carbon

More than 14 billion pencils are manufactured and used globally every year. On average, a pencil is discarded after 60% of its original length has been depleted. In the present work we propose a simple and affordable way of converting this non-neglectable amount of waste into added value carbon product. In particular, we demonstrate the microwave synthesis of carbon from the wood pencil with and without chemical activation. This could be a process stage before the final recycling of the expensive graphite core. In the latter case, irradiation of the wood pencil in a domestic microwave oven heats up the pencil’s graphite core, thus inducing carbonization of its wood casing. The carbonized product consists of amorphous carbon nanosheets having relatively low surface area. However, if the wood pencil is soaked in 50% KOH aqueous solution prior to microwave irradiation, a significantly higher surface area of carbon is obtained, consisting of irregular-shaped porous particles. Consequently, the obtained carbon can easily decolorize a methylene blue aqueous solution, can be used to make pocket warmers or gunpowder, and lastly, serves as an excellent adsorbent towards Cr(VI) removal from water, showing a maximum adsorption capacity of 70–75 mg/g within 24 h at 23 °C, pH = 3.

Supported nanocatalysts: recent developments in microwave synthesis for application in heterogeneous catalysis

Synthesis of nanocatalyst on high surface area solid support is gaining attention from synthetic chemists for application in heterogeneous catalysis due to high catalytic performance and easy recoverability. However, the...

Europium doping of cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots via rapid microwave synthesis for optoelectronic applications

UV-Vis spectroscopy and PL data show that structural incorporation of Eu3+ has an effect on the optical properties of CdSe QDs via energy transfer from host to dopant. This allows for QDs with tunable optical properties via numerous pathways.

Nitrogen Tailored Activated Carbon via Microwave Synthesis Method for High Removal of Hydrogen Sulfide

In this work, commercialized palm shell activated carbon was modified into nitrogen-functionalized carbon via urea impregnation method, followed by heat treatment via microwave irradiation at 950 °C.