Coir Pith Lignin as a reliable bio-source for Carbonaceous Nano-structures: Extraction and characterization

Abstract

This paper signifies using coir pith lignin as a cheap and reliable carbon source for preparing bio-based carbonaceous material. The coir pith is selected as it is abundantly available and has a very high lignin content of 38-59.5%. The soda extraction process does the extraction of lignin from coir pith with a yield of 45%. This extracted lignin is then subjected to a different procedure to transform it into carbon nanofibers with an ID/IG ratio of 0.35 and carbon fillers with a high surface area of 1089.1 m2/g without the presence of an activating agent. Thus prepared carbonaceous fillers are potential reinforcements for polymer matrices as these fillers may provide sufficient mechanical and thermal stability to the composites. Furthermore, due to their excellent electrical conductivity, 0.221 S/cm, the carbonaceous nanomaterials are suitable for multifunctional composite applications. This is the first work based on coir pith lignin as a carbon precursor to the best of our knowledge.