ABSTRACT
In the early part of the 20th century, many industrialized materials such as solvents, fuels, synthetic bers, and chemical products were made from plant/cropbased resources (Figure 2.1) [1,2]. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case and most of today’s industrial materials including fuels, polymers, chemicals, carbons, pharmaceuticals, packing, construction, and many others are being manufactured from fossil-based resources. Humankind is still living in a world where petroleum resources have the absolute power. However, crude oil resources are rapidly diminishing. It is predicted that this will lead to serious conicts in the world related to distribution and control. What is even of more concern, is that essentially such fossil fuel-derived products eventually end up as CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. Several important ndings of climate research have been conrmed in recent decades and are nally accepted as facts by the scientic community. These include indeed a rapid increase in the carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere during the last
2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................7 2.2 Green Carbon Materials ................................................................................. 10
2.2.1 Carbon Nanotubes and Graphitic Nanostructures .............................. 10 2.2.2 Graphene, Graphene Oxide, and Highly Reduced Graphene Oxide ... 18 2.2.3 Activated Carbons .............................................................................. 21 2.2.4 Starbons .............................................................................................. 21 2.2.5 Use of Ionic Liquids in the Synthesis of Carbon Materials ................26 2.2.6 Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) .................................................. 33
2.2.6.1 Formation Mechanism .........................................................34 2.2.6.2 Porous HTC Materials ......................................................... 35 2.2.6.3 Heteroatom-Doped HTCs .................................................... 37 2.2.6.4 HTC-Inorganic Hybrids ......................................................40 2.2.6.5 Applications of HTC Materials ........................................... 41
2.3 Summary ........................................................................................................ 49 References ................................................................................................................ 49
150 years, from 228 ppm to the 2007 level of 383 ppm [3]. This increase is our own fault and is due to burning of fossil fuels.
