Laboratory Kilogram-Scale Graphene Production from Coal

The flash Joule heating (FJH) method converts many carbon feedstocks into graphene in milliseconds to seconds using an electrical pulse. This opens an opportunity for processing low or negative value resources, such as coal and plastic waste, into high value graphene. Here, we demonstrate a lab-scale automation FJH system that allows the synthesis of 1.1 kg of turbostratic flash graphene from coal-based metallurgical coke (MC) in 1.5 h. The process is based on the automated conversion of 5.7 g of MC per batch using an electrical pulse width modulation system to conduct the bottom-up upcycle of MC into flash graphene. We then compare this method to two other scalable graphene synthesis techniques by both a life cycle assessment and a technoeconomic assessment.