SEM Evaluation of Carbonized Petroleum Residues

Abstract

This paper reports the thermal and catalytic carbonization of the petroleum residues under nitrogen environment in a micro‐autoclave. Each of the residues after carbonization was soxhletly extracted with n‐pentane until clearance was reached in the thimble compartment, dried, weighed and crushed in a pestle and mortar. The turning of each residue to graphitized crystallites was evaluated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Elemental analysis of all these residues was also performed using Energy Dispersive X‐ray Spectrophotometry (EDX). Several morphological features can be observed in all the images in the form of breaches, islands, plateaus, and discs. In the case of thermal carbonization, these morphological features are not very profound, while in the case of catalytic carbonization, the features are quite visible and distinct, particularly with AlCl₃ and methyl iodide. It is inferred from the results that catalysts have been found to induce morphological changes and have played a vital role in converting asphalt into a graphite‐type material.

Keywords:

• Asphalt
• carbonization
• graphite
• SEM
• EDX

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Vice Chancellor, University of Peshawar for financial assistance and Prof. Dr. Mohammad Riaz, Department of physics, University of Peshawar for allowing the use of the SEM and EDX facilities of the Centralized Resource Laboratory, University of Peshawar.