Semiconductor carbon-nitrogen nanomaterials based on interpolyelectrolyte complex sodium lignosulfonate-chitosan

Abstract

This article was aimed at synthesizing new carbon-nitrogen nanomaterial from lignosulfonate/ chitosan (LS/CT) system via carbonization. The effect of LS molecular weight on the amount of nitrogen in the carbonizates, textural characteristics of carbon-nitrogen nanomaterials and their electrical properties was established by a variety of methods (SEM, AFM, BET, X-ray, IR, and dielectric spectroscopy). Structure of carbon-nitrogen nanomaterial is fractal with a high specific surface area (378–460 m²/g) and a significant pore volume (0.33–0.48 cm³). The electrical conductivity increases with an increase in the degree of disorder in the structure of carbon-nitrogen nanomaterial and correlates with the quantitative nitrogen content in the sample. The maximum electrical conductivity value was obtained for the sample with molecular weight of LS 67 kDa and is 0.71•10⁻⁷ S/cm. This study provides a novel method for the development of highly conductive carbon-nitrogen nanomaterials based on low-cost biopolymers that hold promise for a variety of practical applications.

Keywords:

• Nanomaterial
• lignosulfonate
• chitosan
• carbonization
• electrical conductivity

Acknowledgments

This work was performed using instrumentation of Core Facility Center “Arktika” of Northern (Arctic) Federal University and the equipment of Center for Collective Use of Scientific Equipment “Critical technologies of the Russian Federation in the field of environmental safety of the Arctic” (N. Laverov Federal Center for Integrated Arctic Research, Ural Branch of RAS, Russian Federation).

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Natalia Gorshkova: Investigation, writing – original draft, visualization. Irina Palamarchuk: Conceptualization, investigation, writing – original draft. Olga Brovko: Investigation, methodology, editing. Aleksandr Volkov: Investigation, methodology. Aleksey Malkov: Investigation, methodology. Nikolay Bogdanovich: Methodology, investigation. Artem Ivakhnov: Investigation, methodology. Dmitriy Chukhchin: Methodology, investigation.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded from the project agreement No. 122011700252-1 “Physico-chemical bases of selective methods of isolation, characteristics and application of biologically active complexes of plant objects of high latitudes for solving problems of environmental control and health protection”.