Characterization of Graphite from Palm Oil Mesocarp Fiber Waste Using Nickel (II) Nitrate Catalyst in Graphitization Process Rinette Visca (a*), Cynthia Veronika Tarigan (a), Asep Handaya Saputra (a)
(a) Chemical Engineering Department, University of Indonesia
Margonda Raya Street, Depok , Indonesia
*rinette.visca[at]ui.ac.id
Abstract
Recently graphites, used in industrial processes are mainly synthetic graphite. The problem is that the conventional graphitization process consumes a lot of energy, and the carbon precursors used are typically non-renewable. The purpose of this study is to form synthetic graphite from carbon precursor from palm oil mesocarp fiber waste. Lignocellulosic biomass carbon precursors, such as oil palm mesocarp fibers waste, tend to form ungraphitizable carbon when carbonized. Nevertheless the use of the catalytic graphitization method create graphitization of ungraphitizable carbon. Parameter considered in this study is the degree of graphitization, which shows how much of the material is structured in graphitic order. One of the factors that affect the degree of graphitization is the type of the catalyst used in the process. In this research, the catalyst variations used are nickel (II) nitrate and iron (III) nitrate with graphitization temperature of 900oC and equal catalyst loading of 3 mmol metal per gram carbon sample. The result of graphitization of palm oil mesocarp fibre waste using nickel (II) nitrate catalyst, did not show the ordered structures of a graphitic carbon, but the graphitization using iron (III) nitrate shows that the resulting product has a graphitic structure with a degree of graphitization of 73,4%, which is significantly better than using nickel (II) nitrate.
Keywords: synthetic graphite, catalytic graphitization, oil palm mesocarp fibre, nickel (II) nitrate, iron (III) nitrate
