Watching the death of carbon nanoparticles, atom-by-atom

Controlling the amount of carbon nanoparticles (CNP) formed and its nanostructure is essential in many different fields. The purpose of this projects is to fill in knowledge gap regarding the oxidation of CNP.

Fundamental studies of the oxidation process of CNP under relevant process conditions are necessary to understand the complicated mechanisms that control the oxidation process.

In this project, which is a collaboration project between RISE ETC and the microscopy group at Lund University, an oxidation study will be performed using an aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM). The oxidation process will be recorded in real-time at atomic resolution from initiation to the end.

The influence of ash forming element on the oxidation process will be sort out.

Before the metal containing CNP are burned in the ETEM they will be characterize with aberration-corrected scanning transmission microscope (STEM) equipped with an electron energy loss spectrometer (EELS) to investigate if and how the metals have affected the nanostructure of the CNP.

The fundamental knowledge this project will generate can be used to choose the right process conditions, additives and/or intelligent biomass blends for complete fuel conversion and optimal efficiency for high temperature thermochemical processes or for generated CNP with right material properties for energy storages.