From polystyrene waste to porous carbon flake and potential application in supercapacitor

Jiakang Min; Shuai Zhang; Jiaxin Li; Rüdiger Klingeler; Xin Wen; Xuecheng Chen; Xi Zhao; Tao Tang; Ewa Mijowska

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2019.01.002

From polystyrene waste to porous carbon flake and potential application in supercapacitor

Waste Manag. 2019 Feb 15:85:333-340. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.01.002. Epub 2019 Jan 9.

Authors

Jiakang Min¹, Shuai Zhang², Jiaxin Li³, Rüdiger Klingeler⁴, Xin Wen⁵, Xuecheng Chen⁶, Xi Zhao⁷, Tao Tang⁸, Ewa Mijowska²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Renmin Street 5625, Changchun 130022, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
² Nanomaterials Physicochemistry Department, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Piastów Ave. 42, 71-065 Szczecin, Poland.
³ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Renmin Street 5625, Changchun 130022, China.
⁴ Kirchhoff-Institut fürPhysik, Universität Heidelberg, INF 227, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Renmin Street 5625, Changchun 130022, China; Nanomaterials Physicochemistry Department, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Piastów Ave. 42, 71-065 Szczecin, Poland.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Renmin Street 5625, Changchun 130022, China; Nanomaterials Physicochemistry Department, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Piastów Ave. 42, 71-065 Szczecin, Poland. Electronic address: xchen@ciac.ac.cn.
⁷ Institute of Theoretical Chemistry, Jilin university, liutiao road 2#, Changchun, 130021, China. Electronic address: zhaoxi@jlu.edu.cn.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Renmin Street 5625, Changchun 130022, China. Electronic address: ttang@ciac.ac.cn.

PMID: 30803588
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.01.002

Abstract

Due to white pollution related environmental concern and sustainable development requirement, it is desirable to recycle the widely used plastic wastes into products with commercial value, such as high-valued carbon materials which can be applied in electrochemical fields. In this work, porous carbon flakes (PCFs) are produced by direct pyrolysis of polystyrene waste through template method. Furthermore, manganese dioxide (MnO₂) nanosheets are selectively deposited on the surface of resultant PCFs to form hybrid (PCF-MnO₂). Because of the large specific surface area (1087 m²/g) and high conductivity of PCFs, native high specific capacity of MnO₂, and positive synergistic interaction between PCF and MnO₂, the resulting hybrid materials show an ultrahigh capacitance of 308 F/g at 1 mV/s and 247 F/g at 1 A/g in LiCl electrolyte, and excellent cycle stability of 93.4% capacitance retention over 10,000 cycles at 10 A/g in symmetric supercapacitor device. This work demonstrates a convenient method for the preparation of cost-effective and high-performance electrode material for electric capacitor. More importantly, it provides a potential way to recycle polystyrene waste into high-valued product in large-scale with disposing of polymeric waste to alleviate environmental concerns.

Keywords: Energy storage; Manganese dioxide; Polystyrene waste; Porous carbon flake; Supercapacitor; Waste recycling.

MeSH terms

Carbon*
Electric Capacitance
Electrodes
Polystyrenes*
Porosity

Substances

Polystyrenes
Carbon