Changde Ma, Xiaoguang Liu, Jiakang Min, Jiaxin Li, Jiang Gong, Xin Wen, Xuecheng Chen*, Tao Tang*, Ewa Mijowska

Sustainable recycle of waste polystyrene into hierarchical porous carbon nanosheets with potential application in supercapacitor. Nanotechnology (2019) Accept

Herein, polystyrene (PS) waste was selectively carbonized into mesoporous carbon nanosheets (CNS) by template method. The pore structure of the obtained CNS was further tuned by KOH activation, resulting in the formation of hierarchical porous carbon sheets with high specific surface areas of 2650 m2/g as well as good conductivity. Benefiting from these unique properties, in three electrode system, it displayed a specific capacitance of 323 F/g at 0.5A/g in 6 M KOH electrolyte, good rate capability (222 F/g at 20 A/g) and cycle stability. More importantly, it also displayed a high energy density of 44.1 Wh kg-1 with a power density of 757.1 W kg-1 in organic electrolyte. In this regard, the present strategy demonstrates a sustainable and economical approach for recycling the plastic waste into high value-added products, which will pave the potential way for the treatment of plastic waste in the future.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6528/ab475f/meta