Promoting Discarded Packing Waste into Value-Added 2D Porous Carbon Flakes for Multifunctional Applications

Abstract

In this work, a prolific reuse of waste foam peanuts into eco-benign and cost-effective two-dimensional (2D) activated carbon nanoflakes (CFs) was presented for use in CO, capture and supercapacitor applications. The 2D nanoporous carbon sheets-like structures were derived by a two step process including simple carbonization followed by KOH activation (C:KOH = 1:1). With the varied activation temperature, the surface area and porosity have been controlled, which demonstrate the narrow pore size distribution in the range of <1 nm and mesopore in the range of similar to 40 nm. Among the samples derived, CF-800 shows excellent CO2 sorption capacity corresponding to 3.3-3.45 mmol/g with the highest surface area corresponding to 1041 m(2)/g and outstanding cyclic stability over 21 cycles. Meanwhile, the prepared 2D activated CFs demonstrated superior energy storage properties including high specific capacitance of 250 F/g at 1 A/g with exceptional cyclic stability. Moreover, the symmetric supercapacitor has been fabricated which demonstrated a maximum energy density and power densities of 26.4 Wh/kg and 4412.5 W/kg, respectively. The foam peanut-waste derived activated CFs with high surface area, effective greenhouse gas sorption, and affordable energy storage performance is exemplar for the development of other carbon based materials.