Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a green method for producing and exploiting multiple nano-carbon polymorphs from coal commonly known as anthracite, meta-anthracite, and semi-graphite. The method disrupts the prevalent environmentally unfriendly practices of burning coal with poor profitability and sustainability because the method yields an unexpectedly rich mixture of high-performance nano-materials, comprising carbon nano-fibers, carbon nano-tubes, carbon nano-onions, nano-graphite-plates, and nano-graphene-disks, by simply mechanically-comminuting coal to nano-size, with minimal sorting efforts. The resulting total-yield of nano-carbon polymorphs is over 50% by weight from properly selected coal. Innovative means are added to the prevalent comminution and sorting practices to further reduce energy and chemical consumption. More importantly, the method also refines the comminution and sorting details for producing the best custom-made formulations.

Abstract: A method for producing hyperthermal molecular hydrogen is disclosed and use of same for selectively breaking C—H or Si—H bonds without breaking other bonds are disclosed. A hydrogen plasma is maintained and protons are extracted with an electric field to accelerate them to an appropriate kinetic energy. The protons enter into a drift zone to collide with molecular hydrogen in gas phase. The cascades of collisions produce a high flux of hyperthermal molecular hydrogen with a flux many times larger than the flux of protons extracted from the hydrogen plasma. The nominal flux ratio of hyperthermal molecular hydrogen to proton is controlled by the hydrogen pressure in the drift zone, and by the length of the drift zone. The extraction energy of the protons is shared by these hyperthermal molecules so that average energy of the hyperthermal molecular hydrogen is controlled by extraction energy of the protons and the nominal flux ratio.