Upcycling Linear Low-Density Polyethylene Waste into Graphene for High Mass Loading Supercapacitors

Conference · Sun Oct 27 04:00:00 EDT 2024

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2474808· OSTI ID:2474808

Gao, Yuan ^[1]; Pham, Viet Hung ^[1]; Huynh, Ngoc Tien ^[1]; Wang, Congjun ^[2]; Kim, Ki-Joong ^[2]; Matranga, Christopher ^[2]

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1. NETL Site Support Contractor, National Energy Technology Laboratory
2. NETL

Upcycling plastic into advanced carbons, such as graphene and porous carbon, offers attractive options to manage waste streams by converting the plastic into carbon electrode materials for energy storage devices. Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) is firstly bulk-oxidized with a facile and scalable method and then carbonized and catalyticlly graphenized into porous graphene materials. The LLDPE derived graphene (LLDPE-G) has a BET specific surface area up to 1800 m2/g and Raman ID/IG ratio of 0.85. When used as electrode material for symmetric supercapacitor, LLDPE-G possesses outstanding specific capacitance and excellent areal capacitance. Moreover, LLDPE-G exhibits exceptional cycling stability with capacitance retention of 95.8% after 100,000 cycles. Last but not least, KCl is recycled and reused over 3 cycles with material quality and electrocapacitive performance of LLDPE-G retained and verified after each cycle.

• Research Organization: National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM); USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), Office of Resource Sustainability (FE-30)
• OSTI ID: 2474808
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English