Study on synthesis of carbon materials for cellulose hydrolysis using cavitation plasma process

The global demand for carbon neutrality accelerates the use of biofuels in replace of fossil fuels. Cellulose is the most abundant inedible biomass in the world. Conventional cellulose degradation processes using liquid acid catalysts have several disadvantages, including the difficulty of separating the acid from the glucose filtrate, its corrosive nature, and the difficulty of reusing the acid. In this context, sulfonated carbon catalysts improved by combining porous carbon materials of activated carbon or carbon nanotubes with acidic groups such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, and sulfonic groups have emerged as promising solid acid catalysts for cellulose hydrolysis.

In this study, we introduce an innovative one-step synthesis method using plasma in liquid with ultrasonic cavitation. First, xylene was chosen as the raw material for carbon material synthesis and the characteristics of the synthesized carbon materials by plasma generated in xylene with cavitation bubbles were investigated. The specific surface area of the carbon materials increased with cavitation intensity. Thus, the combination of the plasma with ultrasonic cavitation is effective to enhance catalytic performance of the synthesized carbon materials. As a next step, plasma will be generated in a xylene/sulfuric acid mixture for simultaneous synthesis of carbon materials with modified sulfonic groups.