Hemp-Derived Graphene-like Materials: A Renewable Pathway Toward Scalable Conductive Carbon Nanomaterials

The scalable and sustainable production of graphene remains a significant challenge due to the high cost, complex processing, and environmental impact associated with fossil-derived graphite precursors. In this work, we report a biorenewable pathway for producing graphitic carbon from industrial hemp biomass, yielding a plant-derived material called CleanGraphene. This approach provides a renewable and potentially scalable alternative to petroleum- and coal-based graphene production while maintaining competitive structural and electrical performance. CleanGraphene samples are systematically characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to evaluate crystallographic order, layer stacking, defect density, surface chemistry, and thermal stability. The results show that optimized CleanGraphene materials consist of multilayer graphene-like platelets with compact interlayer spacing (d(002) ≈ 3.36–3.37 Å), extended crystallite coherence lengths (Lc up to ~75 nm), large in-plane sp2 domains (La exceeding ~200 nm), and relatively low defect densities, indicating well-developed graphitic ordering. Electrical conductivity measurements using a binder-free pelletization method and four-point probe analysis demonstrate that the highest quality CleanGraphene samples achieve conductivities of (8.4–8.6) × 104 S m−1, surpassing leading commercial graphene benchmarks measured under identical conditions. Structure–property correlations confirm that electrical performance is governed primarily by crystallite coherence, defect density, and interlayer stacking order, while surface oxygen content plays a secondary role within an ordered graphitic framework. All CleanGraphene samples exhibit excellent thermal stability, retaining more than 95% mass up to ~800–900 °C under an inert atmosphere. Collectively, these findings establish quantitative quality benchmarks for hemp-derived graphene and demonstrate that biomass-based graphene can achieve electrical and thermal performance comparable to, and in some cases exceeding, conventional commercial products. This work highlights industrial hemp as a promising renewable precursor for the scalable production of high-performance graphitic nanomaterials for electrically and thermally conductive composite applications.