Carbon at the Turn of the Century: From Fuels to Nanomaterials
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on at the Turn of the Century: From Fuels to Nanomaterials D. A. Shlyapina,*, N. N. Leont’evaa,**, and A. V. Lavrenova,*** a
Center of New Chemical Technologies, Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Omsk, 644040 Russia *e-mail: [email protected] **e-mail: [email protected] ***e-mail: [email protected] Received February 14, 2020; revised February 14, 2020; accepted July 15, 2020
DOI: 10.3103/S0361521920060105
Carbon is essential for the life of modern human beings. All life on the Earth consists of more than 20% carbon. Life exists and will continue to exist as long as the process of photosynthesis takes place to ensure the conversion of carbon from an inorganic form (carbon dioxide) into organic compounds (carbohydrates). For centuries, the humankind has used carbon and carbon-containing materials for their needs, primarily, as a source of heat and light (wood, charcoal, coal, oil, and gas), and carbon in the form of a diamond was considered the highest value. Centuries passed and the scope of application of carbon-containing materials gradually expanded. After special processing, coal began to be used as a sorbent and an integral component of gunpowder after the appearance of firearms. A revolution in the production and use of new carbon materials, like many other things in the development of our civilization, took place in the 20th century. Carbon began to be used in the manufacture of automobile tires as a pigment and filler for coloring various materials and imparting them improved physical and mechanical properties. This served as a basis for the development of the industrial production of carbon black from hydrocarbon raw materials, and the production of nanostructured carbon materials such as nanotubes, nanofibers, and fullerenes appeared at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The growing interest in the use of both natural and synthetic carbon materials along with a tendency to clean energy led to the concept of a transition from hydrocarbon economy to carbon–hydrogen economy in the mid-2000s. The latter is based on the use of hydrogen obtained by the decomposition of hydrocarbons as the main fuel and the maximum replacement of traditional structural materials based on metal alloys and concrete with carbon composites. Our country has not stayed away from the carbon revolution. The carbon black industry was created and
intensively developed in the USSR, and dozens of grades of carbon materials for various purposes were developed and introduced. The development of the carbon black branch was based on a solid scientific basis. The need to respond promptly to the growing demand for carbon materials and the expansion of the area of their applications led to the organization of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Carbon Black (VNIITU MNKhP USSR) in Omsk in 1968; this institute became the basis for the development of carbon black technologies in the USSR in the next few decades. In the mid-1980s, Omsk chemists with their Novosibirsk colleagues from the Boreskov Insti
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