Producing low temperature graphitic compound from oil palm trunk waste

Carbon has many allotropes or polymorphs which differ in the arrangement of atom. Graphite, graphene, fullerenes and diamond are common example of carbon allotrope. Graphene receive a great impact on electronic and optoelectronic devices, chemical sensors, nano-composites and energy storage. However, the graphene is derived from the chemical processes and treatment of graphite. There are two types of graphite, which are, natural graphite and synthetic graphite. Previously, synthetic graphite was produced under higher heating temperature, which is above 2500ՕC in complex processing method, which bear the name of the scientist whose discover the synthetic graphite namely “Acheson Process”. Previously, synthetic graphite was produced under higher heating temperature and by using petroleum coke, anthracite, and coal tar pitch as the pre cursor raw materials. However, in this study, via pyrolysis process, in controlled heating condition, and specific heating rate by utilizing oil palm trunk waste, synthetic graphite was manage to produce at much lower heating temperature. In this study, the heating temperature was varied in five heating temperature series, which are, 300°C, 500°C, 800°C, 1000°C and 1200°C. The heating rate applied was also varied in 3 different series, which are, 5°/min, 10°/min and 20°/min. After the heating treatment, the sample was characterized by different analysis tools, including, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, RAMAN analysis, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis, Thermogravimetry (TGA) Analysis, and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) Analysis. The results obtained for produced synthetic graphite was compared with the commercial graphite. From the conducted characterization process, among all parameters varied, the best parameter to produce synthetic graphite from oil palm trunk waste was at the heating temperature of 800ºC and with the heating rate of 20º/min. XRD analysis of the synthetic graphite produced at 800 ºC, 20º/min, shows the significant graphite peak in XRD diffraction pattern at 26 º in 2ϴ, which is comparable with the commercial synthetic graphite. This was further supported with RAMAN analysis as to confirm the graphitic nature of the synthetic graphite produced. RAMAN spectroscopy shows the graphitic nature of the graphite obtained in the presence of D, G and 2D peaks at 1250 cm-1, 1625 cm-1 and 2700 cm-1 respectively. From the morphological characterization conducted by scanning electron microscope (SEM), the formation of graphite flakes also formed for the sample heated at 800 ºC at 20º/min which comparable with the commercial synthetic graphite. Thermogravimetry (TGA) analysis also show the 10 % of percentage weight loss as a function of increasing temperature for sample heated at 800 ºC, 20º/min. Fourier transform Infra-Red (FTIR) analysis also show existence of functional group of graphite. The synthetic graphite obtained from the best parameters was further exfoliated by using Modified Hummers Method to produce reduced graphene oxide. The reduced graphene oxide produced was further characterized by using XRD, RAMAN, FTIR and TEM.