Upcycling Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate to Produce Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon for Enhanced Capacitive Deionization

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 29; no. 20; p. 4934
• Main Authors: Yu, Hui, Duan, Haiyan, Chen, Liang, Zhu, Weihua, Baranowska, Daria, Hua, Yumeng, Zhang, Dengsong, Chen, Xuecheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 18-10-2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Adsorption; Capacitors; Carbon; CDI; Desalination; Electrodes; Electrolytes; Industrial equipment and supplies industry; Microcomputers; MOF; N-PC; Nitrogen; PET; Plastic scrap; Polyethylene terephthalate; Pore size; Voltammetry; Waste management; United States; CDI; MOF; N-PC; PET
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules29204934

Porous carbon with a high surface area and controllable pore size is needed for energy storage. It is still a significant challenge to produce porous carbon in an economical way. Nitrogen-doped porous carbon (N-PC) was prepared through carbonization of a mixture of waste PET-derived metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and ammonium. The obtained N-PC exhibits a large surface area and controlled pore size. When utilized as an electrode material for supercapacitors, the N-PC exhibits a specific capacitance of 224 F g
, significantly surpassing that of commercial activated carbon (AC), which has a capacitance of 111 F g
. In the subsequent capacitive deionization (CDI) tests, the N-PC demonstrated a maximum salt adsorption capacity of 19.9 mg g
at 1.2 V in a NaCl electrolyte (0.5 g L
), and the salt adsorption capacity increased to 24.7 mg g
at 1.4 V. The N-PC electrode also exhibited superior regeneration. The present work not only presents a potential approach to develop cost-effective electrodes for seawater purification but also paves the way for recycling of waste plastics into high value-added products.