Asphaltene changed into graphene for composites

Asphaltenes are a byproduct of crude oil production. They are a waste material with potential. In new research, researchers from Rice University have tried to find it by converting the carbon-rich resource into useful graphene.

Keywords: Asphaltenes, flash Joule heating process, graphene, jolt, environment

Muhammad Rahman, an assistant research professor of materials science and nanoengineering is the pioneer of this research. He used Rice's unique flash Joule heating process for converting asphaltenes instantly into turbostratic i.e. loosely aligned graphene and then mixing it into composites for thermal, anti-corrosion, and 3D-printing applications.

This process makes good use of the material. Otherwise, asphaltene is usually burned for reusing it as fuel. Else it is discarded into tailing ponds and landfills. Thus, this is harmful to the environment. It adversely impacts the environment. This new way will make a way to use some of the world's reserves of more than 1 trillion barrels of asphaltene as a feedstock for graphene. This will also prove to be good for the environment.

Researcher Rahman said, "Asphaltene is a big headache for the oil industry, and I think there will be a lot of interest in this". He characterized the process as both a scalable and sustainable way of reducing carbon emissions from burning asphaltene.

Generally, asphaltenes are 70% to 80% carbon. The team of researchers combined it with about 20% of carbon black to add conductivity. Then they flashed it with a jolt of electricity. This turns asphaltenes into graphene. Other elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur are vented away as gases in this process.

Researcher Rahman said, "We try to keep the carbon black content as low as possible because we want to maximize the utilization of asphaltene".

Rice graduate student and co-lead author M.A.S.R. Saadi said, "The government has been putting pressure on the petroleum industries to take care of this. There are billions of barrels of asphaltene available, so we began working on this project primarily to see if we could make carbon fiber. That led us to think maybe we should try making graphene with flash Joule heating".

The research assured that the process worked well on asphaltene as it did on various other feedstocks such as plastic, electronic waste, tires, coal fly ash, and even car parts. Researcher Saadi said, "We've optimized the ink rheology to show that it is printable," he said, noting the inks have no more than 10% of graphene mixed in. Mechanical testing of printed objects is forthcoming".

This research has made a way for researchers for making things with this graphene.