Transforming polystyrene waste into 3D hierarchically porous carbon for high-performance supercapacitors

Changde Ma; Jiakang Min; Jiang Gong; Xiaoguang Liu; Xueying Mu; Xuecheng Chen; Tao Tang

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126755

Transforming polystyrene waste into 3D hierarchically porous carbon for high-performance supercapacitors

Chemosphere. 2020 Aug:253:126755. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126755. Epub 2020 Apr 11.

Authors

Changde Ma¹, Jiakang Min², Jiang Gong³, Xiaoguang Liu⁴, Xueying Mu², Xuecheng Chen⁵, Tao Tang⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China; University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Material Chemistry of Energy Conversion and Storage, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁴ Nanomaterials Physicochemistry Department, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Piastów Ave. 42, 71-065, Szczecin, Poland.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 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.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China; University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China. Electronic address: ttang@ciac.ac.cn.

PMID: 32464775
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.126755

Abstract

Polystyrene (PS) is usually discarded as a solid waste after a short lifespan. Thus the disposal of waste PS is an inevitably worldwide issue because of their stable and non-biodegradable nature. Herein, a facile method was proposed to carbonize PS waste into novel three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically porous carbon using Fe₂O₃ particles as both catalyst and template. Furthermore, KOH activation was applied to generate microporous and mesopores on the wall of macropores. As a result, the obtained 3D hierarchically porous carbon exhibits a high specific capacitance of 284.1 F g^-1 at 0.5 A g^-1 and good rate performance of 198 F g^-1 at 20 A g^-1 in a three-electrode device. Moreover, the assembled symmetrical capacitor displays a high energy density of 19.2 W h kg^-1 at the power density of 200.7 W kg^-1 in aqueous electrolyte. Therefore, the present research develops a sustainable way to recycle waste plastics into 3D hierarchically porous carbon for supercapacitors.

Keywords: Carbonization; Electrode material; Hierarchically porous carbon; Supercapacitor; Waste polystyrene.

MeSH terms

Carbon
Electric Capacitance
Electrodes
Electrolytes
Plastics
Polystyrenes / chemistry*
Porosity
Water

Substances

Electrolytes
Plastics
Polystyrenes
Water
Carbon