Effect of chemical and mechanical pre-treatments on the char yield, dimensional changes and electrical conductivity of carbonized birch wood sheets.

Abstract

Renewable wood-based carbon materials have several promising applications in the fields of energy and environment. Electrically conductive wood-based carbon materials can be produced by carbonization of wood in controlled conditions of temperature and heating rate. Up till now, the effects of mechanical densification and macromolecular composition modification on the mechanical integrity and electrical conductivity of carbonized wood sheets were not investigated. This master thesis addresses this knowledge gap.

Using an approach based on experimental design, we investigated the combined effects of alkaline cooking, densification, carbonization temperature and heating rate, on the yield, dimensional changes and electrical conductivity of carbonized birch wood sheets.

The morphological modifications of the carbonized birch sheets, which occurred upon the successive treatments, were investigated using scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, we acquired the Raman spectra of the carbonized sheets in order to gain insights on the carbon nanostructure. A remarkable relationship between derived Raman spectral features and electrical conductivity was established.