Hydrothermal recycling of natural and synthetic polymers to functional carbon materials

• Utilizing renewable recourses and waste recycling are necessary for reaching a circular resource society. The concept of this thesis was to set up a sustainable recycling route, suitable even for low quality biopolymer and plastic waste for production of functional carbon materials. Carbonaceous materials were prepared by mild hydrothermal carbonizations of cellulose and polypropylene (PP) under acidic conditions. The carbonization of cellulose resulted mainly in micro-/nanometer sized carbon spheres (CS) with polar functionalities. After carbonization of PP, products were found in solid and liquid phase. Completely carbonized solid carbons products were obtained from PP at 250 °C after 60 min. The liquid products from the same process displayed aromatics and exhibited fluorescence properties. In addition, new carbon materials were prepared by acid, base and thermal treatments of the carbonized products at low temperatures. Thermally resistant carbon products and antibacterial CS towards both Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were demonstrated as possible applications for these products. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of CS were 200-400 µg mL-1 depending on the bacteria strain and reached after only 3 h. Furthermore, nanometer sized carbon nanodots with high oxygenation degree and fluorescence properties were derived together with carbon flakes (CF) from the carbonized products. The CF with flat and micrometer sized morphology and polar groups were utilized for coating of cationized cellulose filters, applied as adsorbents and then subsequently as surfaces for SALDI-MS analysis of environmental contaminants. This work contributes with new routes to and applications for functional carbon materials.

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