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Scalable slot-die coated flexible supercapacitors from upcycled PET face shields

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Lidija SillerORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© 2024 The Royal Society of Chemistry.Upcycling Covid19 plastic waste into valuable carbonaceous materials for energy storage applications is a sustainable and green approach to minimize the burden of waste plastic on the environment. Herein, we developed a facile single step activation technique for producing activated carbon consisting of spherical flower like carbon nanosheets and amorphous porous flakes from used PET [poly(ethylene terephthalate)] face shields for supercapacitor applications. The as-obtained activated carbon exhibited a high specific surface area of 1571 m2 g−1 and pore volume of 1.64 cm3 g−1. The specific capacitance of these carbon nanostructure-coated stainless steel electrodes reached 228.2 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 current density with excellent charge transport features and good rate capability in 1 M Na2SO4 aqueous electrolyte. We explored the slot-die coating technique for large-area coatings of flexible high-performance activated carbon electrodes with special emphasis on optimizing binder concentration. Significant improvement in electrochemical performance was achieved for the electrodes with 15 wt% Nafion concentration. The flexible supercapacitors fabricated using these electrodes showed high energy and power density of 21.8 W h kg−1 and 20 600 W kg−1 respectively, and retained 96.2% of the initial capacitance after 10 000 cycles at 2 A g−1 current density. The present study provides a promising sustainable approach for upcycling PET plastic waste for large area printable supercapacitors.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Reddygunta KKR, Callander A, Siller L, Faulds K, Berlouis L, Ivaturi A

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: RSC Advances

Year: 2024

Volume: 14

Issue: 18

Pages: 12781-12795

Online publication date: 19/04/2024

Acceptance date: 27/12/2023

Date deposited: 07/05/2024

ISSN (electronic): 2046-2069

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

URL: https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ra06809e

DOI: 10.1039/d2ra06809e

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