Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Carbon materials have been used in wide range of applications extending from carbon black fillers to super conductive materials and extremely strong carbon fibres. Carbon materials can be used as a filler, reinforcing agent, or conductive material in composites for automotive parts, electronic devices, energy storage devices, protective clothing and aerospace applications. With the global rise in concerns regarding extraction of old fossil-derived carbon and its emission into the atmosphere, it is inevitable to turn to renewable forms of carbon. Renewable carbon, obtained from natural precursors has opened a new chapter in materials science.

The proposed research program aims at understanding and discovering the fundamental science and mechanisms occurring during the conversion of biomass. The feedstock used for this study will be selected from Canadian tree species, agri-residues and lignin, which is an abundant byproduct of the pulp and paper industry. The feedstock biomass will be thermally and chemically treated to isolate bio-carbon materials. The processes and mechanisms to produce bio-based carbon materials with high electrical conductivity and light emitting character will be determined. Several aspects of various Canadian feedstocks and processing parameters will be analyzed to understand the procedure of producing the targeted functional bio-carbon materials.

Discoveries of the proposed project will lead to production of bio-carbon sheets with electrical conductivity and bio-carbon dots with light-emission characteristics comparable to the current fossil-derived counterparts. These materials can be used as an alternative in a wide range of applications including solar cells, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), fuel cells, batteries, supercapacitors and transparent conductive films. Other potential applications in the medical sciences are also possible due to the bio-carbon’s non-toxic nature. Various biological imaging may be performed with the bio-carbon dots, for instance, optical in vivo imaging and real-time molecular tracking in live cells. Furthermore, the bio-carbon material may be used as anticancer agents and provide gene/drug delivery to cells.
The importance of developing these bio-based carbon materials is to reduce Canada’s carbon footprint. The bio-carbons used will have a positive impact on Canada’s green technology sector, and in the long term will reduce the fossil fuel emissions. The resources used are renewable and plenty in Canada’s vast landscape, and thus will drive leadership in sustainable manufacturing sector forward to the future.