The Research on Carbon-Based Nanomaterials Undertaken by SINOPEC Research Instit

Recently, The project “Research on carbon-based nanomaterials” has passed the technical review organized by the SINOPEC Science and Technology Division. The experts attending the technical review meeting have unanimously recognized that this research achievement has set up a SINOPEC knowledge and technical platform for the novel carbon-based nanomaterials, the commercial scale-up and application of which should be studied effectively by virtue of cooperation between the industry and the universities to provide technical support to SINOPEC in the emerging field of carbon composites.

This project, in the research of which the SINOPEC Research Institute of Petroleum Porocessing (RIPP) plays a leading role, is one of the first pilot projects governed by the SNOPEC’s project director responsibility system,This project is composed of four sub-projects, viz.: “Study of porous carbon nanomaterials”, “Study of carbon/metal composite catalytic materials”, “Study of carbon/metal oxide nanomaterials”, and “Study of carbon/polymer composite nanomaterials”.

In the course of study and development of research activities, the relevant research institutions have been cooperating actively and working in tandem to tackle key problems. The research workers have manufactured the carbon-based nanomaterials from petroleum,coal and biomass, and after precisely controlling the structure and composition of carbon-based nanomaterials have successfully developed some new carbon-based nanomaterials, including the graphene carbon nanocages,the graphene coated metals, and the graphene/polyolefin conductive composite materials, some of which have been successfully applied in the area of water electrolysis catalyst, fuel cell catalyst, diffusion layer materials, and hydrogen storage materials. The study of novel carbonbased nanomaterials has resulted in new understanding and approaches in the area of selective catalytic hydrogenation, super capacitor, lithium sulfur battery,and Pt/C catalyst for fuel cells, which can provide a theoretical and practical basis for realizing commercialscale application of nanomaterials and exploring new application domains. When the newly developed phosphorus-modified porous carbon catalytic material was applied in the oxidative dehydrogenation of butane,the butane conversion could reach 10% coupled with a butadiene selectivity of over 40% and a total olefins selectitity of more than 90% to command a leading position among international competitors.