Scientists have created industrial material from tobacco and corn husks

Scientists at the Salk Institute converted tobacco and corn husks into silicon carbide.

Study

offers a very careful account of howsilicon carbide is produced and how many carbon atoms are removed from the atmosphere during its production. With this knowledge, it is possible to change the specific role of plants in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as converting industrial byproduct, CO2, into valuable materials. 

SiC, also known as carborundum, is an ultra-hard material used in ceramics, sandpaper, semiconductors and LEDs.

Salk's team used the previously described methodconverting plant material to silicon carbide in three steps. At first, the researchers grew tobacco. They then froze and ground the collected plants into powder and treated it with several chemicals, including a silicon-containing compound. At the third and final stage, the powdered ones solidified, and from them it was already possible to obtain SiC: in this process, the material was heated to 1,600 degrees Celsius.

The most helpful thing was that we were able todemonstrate how much carbon can be extracted from agricultural waste such as corn husks, as it is usually obtained from fossil fuels.

Suzanne Thomas, first author and Salk Fellow

The researchers calculated that to obtain 1.8 gSiC requires about 177 kWh of energy, with the majority of this energy, 70%, used for the furnace during the petrification stage. The authors note that modern production processes for research centers incur comparable energy costs. The new technology is carbon neutral, and this is its advantage, the authors say. 

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