Student research opportunities
Production of carbon nanofibres from renewable raw materials
Project Code: CECS_927
This project is available at the following levels:
Engn R&D, Masters, PhD
Keywords:
Nanotechnology, carbon nanofibre
Supervisor:
Assoc Professor Takuya TsuzukiOutline:
Carbon nanofibres are a novel class of engineering materials with excellent mechanical and electrical properties. They are suitable for wide ranging applications in many areas including electronics and medical science. However, the current production methods suffer from many drawbacks such as high cost, high impurity levels, involvement of hazardous chemicals and difficulty in scaling up their production. Cellulose is one of the materials traditionally used to produce conventional micron size carbon fibres by pyrolysis. It is expected that nano-sized cellulose fibres can be used to manufacture carbon nanofibres using the same technique. However, to date, there has been little research conducted on the carbonisation of cellulose nanofibres. Recently, our group has successfully developed the method to produce cellulose nanofibres from natural plant products, using a simple and scalable technique. This novel ‘green’ nanomaterial has significant potential as a new precursor material for the ‘green’ production of carbon nanofibres. This project aims to gain an in-depth understanding of the carbonisation and graphitization processes of cellulose nanofibres.
Requirements/Prerequisites
- Understanding of physics, chemistry and materials science.
Background Literature
- E. Jazaeri, L.Y. Zhang, X.G. Wang, T. Tsuzuki, Cellulose, (2011) 18, 1481-1485.
- E. Jazaeri, T. Tsuzuki, Cellulose, (2013) 20, 707–716.
