Effects of transition metal during the hydrothermal carbonization on characteristics of carbon materials

Abstract

Biomass from the agriculture wastes can be transformed to valuable carbon support through hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). In this study, the biomass was hydrothermally treated at 200°C for 24 h in the presence of transition metals as catalysts. Various types of metal-salt solutions comprising of Cu(NO3)2, Cd(NO3)2, Fe(NO3)3, Ni(NO3)2 and Ba(NO3)2 with a concentration of 5 wt% during HTC, were investigated to study their effects on surface functional characteristics and morphological appearance of the synthesized carbons, which were subsequently characterized using FT-IR, and SEM analyses. Furthermore, the remaining metal particles on the synthesized carbon surface were found to be effective for catalytic applications. Thus, HTC of agriculture by-products in combination with the addition of transition metals would be an effective technique to prepare catalysts in a facile way.