Lignin is one of the most common naturally occurring polymers. Together with cellulose and hemicellulose, they for lignocellulosic material. While the former two are commonly used in the paper making process, lignin is removed and in kraft pulping, the most common form of pulping, it is burned during the liqueur recover cycle. The issue with that is that lignin has the capability of being converted in a number of useful chemicals, such as vanillin, resins, and graphitic materials. One such material is graphene, which lignin is capable of converting to graphene with the aid of vermiculite.<br/> <br/>Lignin is first dissolved into water with the usage of a tip sonicator. Vermiculite is added to this solution and is sonicated in order to aid in the adsorption of the lignin solution. After sonication, the lignin-absorbed vermiculite is placed into a furnace under a nitrogen atmosphere and heated to 600<sup>o</sup>C to carbonize the lignin. Due to the planar structure of vermiculite, the causes the lignin to carbonize into graphene sheets. These sheets are extracted using hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid to dissolve the vermiculite. Multiple methods of characterization was used to understand the graphene that was produced: SEM, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy.

Graphene synthesis from lignin-adsorbed vermiculite

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