Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this project will demonstrate the…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this project will demonstrate the use of pine wood derived graphene oxidematerials for two diverse applications: lithium-ION batteries and paving blocks. Additionally, the project will include further research into how changes in processing affect the finalproducts. This research is critical for scale-up and commercialization to improve the effectiveness of the process and provide scale-up feasibility.wood feedstock is first converted to biochar, then to graphene oxide, a viable product. The materials produced in this way have similar properties to graphene materials produced via graphite but have different structural characteristics. The differences offer advantages for particular applications, such as battery anode materials. Further treatment produces reduced graphene oxideand highly reduced graphene nanosheets, also viable products. The end use sectors for project materials include battery manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, concrete manufacturing, optics, filtration, and composites. These materials, depending on the level of processing, can cost thousands of dollars per kilogram, but the development proposed in this project can reduce these costs and increase availability of these powerful materials. IT is important to utilize the abundant woody biomass available annually, not only to help with climate change mitigation, but to produce a value-added product from forest resources and wood waste. The synthesis method is an improvement over other known methods since IT is faster, easier to perform, and uses fewer reagents. This patented process has proven successful with biochar as feedstock.