UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECT OF BALL MILLING PRETREATMENT ON THE SURFACE FUNCTIONALITY OF BIOCHAR CATALYSTS - MAPS

Macroporous and mesoporous materials such as biochar (BCR) has proven favorable as the relatively larger pores can improve molecular diffusion for the large molecules and their surface functional groups are easily tuned for interaction with various substrates. Our previous INS study of raw BCR show that the material has a slightly higher population of aromatic components than aliphatic compounds. The CH–OH ratio in the raw BCR is ~5, showing that the hydroxyl functional groups are a minority species. C–H stretch modes are the majority species with a ratio of sp3–CH:sp2–CH of 1:1.3. We now wish to understand the effect of pretreatment of BCR on their surface functionality, in particular via the ball milling pretreatment technique as it is considered a promising cost effective alternative method of producing materials with greater surface characteristics. Two types of BCR from different feedstock will be used - palm oil empty fruit bunch and coconut shell waste. Samples pretreated using conventional acid pretreatment will also be carried out. The comparison of BCR from different feedstock and pretreatment techniques will aid the understanding of the correlation between the targeted pretreatment conditions and structure characteristics of BCR before use for catalytic purposes.