Going into the 21st century, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, growing landfills of waste plastic and rubber, and rising demand for building materials have combined to create one of our greatest environmental challenges. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are one of the primary drivers of climate change, stemming from a variety of human activities, including burning fossil fuels for heat and energy, storing waste in landfills, and production of industrial materials. Rubber and plastic waste are generally landfilled or incinerated for energy, leading to worldwide contamination and further emission of greenhouse gases. Additionally, urbanization and industrialization across the globe has led to increased demand for industrial materials such as epoxies and cementitious materials. In this work, flash Joule heating (FJH) is shown to be an effective technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, upcycling waste materials, and improving common building materials through conversion of carbon materials into flash graphene (tFG/FG) and its subsequent application.

Chapter 1 discusses the initial approach to optimizing the FJH process for conversion of waste rubber and rubber tire-derived carbon black into FG materials and their subsequent use as an additive to cementitious materials. Chapter 2 focuses on the use of FJH to obtain hybrid FG/carbon nanotube (CNT) morphologies from pristine single-walled CNT (SWCNT) and their ability to improve the mechanical properties of epoxies. Chapter 3 demonstrates the efficacy of FG made from waste plastic (WPFG) and metallurgical coke (MCFG) as an additive to lubricants to improve their tribological properties. Chapter 4 discusses the ultra-high loading utilization of MCFG as a reinforcing and filling additive in epoxy composites and the reduction in environmental impacts that can result from its use. Chapter 5 demonstrates how a combination of molten carbonate electrolysis and FJH can be used to convert gaseous CO2 into a carbon-negative, reinforcing FG additive to vinyl ester (VE). Chapter 6 provides some preliminary work on replacing fine aggregates in concrete with FG aggregates (FGA) to lighten and strengthen concrete. Chapter 7 discusses the valorization of asphaltene into FG (AFG) and its subsequent effect on the mechanical, thermal, and anti-rust properties of composites.