Activated carbons derived from polyethylene terephthalate for coin-cell supercapacitor electrodes.

We successfully prepared activated carbon derived from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) via carbonization and subsequent activation under various conditions and applied it as active material for supercapacitors. In the activation, we used CO2 for physical activation or KOH for chemical activation and varied the activation temperature from 600 °C to 1,000 °C. We found that CO2 activation is unsuitable because of insufficient pore formation or low activation yield. Interestingly, PET-derived activated carbon obtained using KOH (PETK) at 700 °C-900 °C exhibited higher specific surface areas than YP50f, which is a commercial activated carbon. Furthermore, some PETKs even displayed a dramatic increase in crystallinity. In particular, the PET-derived activated carbon prepared at 900 °C with KOH (PETK900) had the highest retention rate at a high charge-discharge rate and better durability after 2500 cycles than YP50f. Furthermore, employing the same process that we used with the PET chips, we successfully converted waste PET bottles into activated carbon materials. Waste PET-derived activated carbons exhibited good electrochemical performance as active material for supercapacitors. We thus found chemical activation with KOH to be an appropriate method for manufacturing PET-derived activated carbon and PETKs derived both from PET chips and waste PET have considerable potential for commercial use as active materials for supercapacitors. Electronic Supplementary Material: Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s11814-023-1466-3 and is accessible for authorized users.

Polyethylene-Derived Activated Carbon Materials for Commercially Available Supercapacitor in an Organic Electrolyte System.

High-performance supercapacitors based on activated carbons (AC) derived from polyethylene (PE), which is one of the most abundant plastic materials worldwide, are fabricated. First, PE carbons (PEC) are prepared via sulfonation, which is a reported solution for successful carbonization of innately non-carbonizable PE. Then, the physico-electrical changes of PECs upon a chemical activation process are explored. Interestingly, upon the chemical activation, PECs are converted ACs with a large surface area and high crystallinity at the same time. Subsequently, PE-derived ACs (PEAC) are exploited as electrode materials for supercapacitors. Resultant supercapacitors based on PEACs exhibit impressive performance. When compared to supercapacitors based on YP50f, representative commercial ACs, devices using PEACs presented considerably good capacitance, low resistance, and great rate capability. Specifically, the retention rate of devices using PEACs is significantly higher than that of YP50f-based devices. At the high rate of charge-discharge situation reaching 7 A g-1 , the capacitance of supercapacitors using PEACs is ≈70% higher than that of YP50f-based devices. It is assumed that the carbon structure accompanying both large surface area and high conductivity endows a great electrochemical performance at the high current operating conditions. Therefore, it is envisioned that PE may be a viable candidate electrode material for commercially available supercapacitors.

Synthesis of mesoporous lanthanum hydroxide with enhanced adsorption performance for phosphate removal.

Phosphate is a ubiquitous pollutant in aquatic systems, and increasingly stringent post-treatment phosphate effluent standards necessitate increasingly efficient removal techniques. In this study, mesoporous lanthanum hydroxide (MLHO) was synthesized by a hard-template method using ordered mesoporous silica, and its potential as an adsorbent for high-efficiency phosphate removal in aqueous solutions was tested. The porosity characteristics of MLHOs were controlled by adjusting the template structure and synthesis conditions. MLHO adsorbents showed great potential for phosphate removal from solutions containing both high and low initial phosphate concentrations. The phosphate adsorption capacity of MLHO strongly depended on its surface area as this process was governed by monolayer adsorption. Moreover, the phosphate removal performance of MLHO was affected by its structural properties. MLHO showed a high adsorption capacity of 109.41 mg P g-1 at 28 °C (q m by the Langmuir isotherm model). Further, it showed ultrafast adsorption in a solution with low initial concentration of 2 mg P/L; within the first 10 min, 99.8% of phosphate was removed, and the phosphorus concentration remaining in the solution dramatically reduced to 4 µg P/L. These findings suggest that MLHO adsorbent is a good candidate for rapid and efficient low-concentration phosphate removal to meet the increasingly stringent discharge standards for wastewater treatment plants.

Designed synthesis of MOx (M = Zn, Fe, Sn, Ni, Mn, Co, Ce, Mg, Ag), Pt, and Au nanoparticles supported on hierarchical CuO hollow structures.

Despite intensive research into support substrates for the dispersal of nanoparticles and their applications, there has been a lack of general methods to produce metal oxide hollow substrates supporting a wide range of metal and metal oxides. Herein, a synthetic protocol for the preparation of CuO hollow structure-supported MOx (M = Zn, Fe, Ni, Sn, Mn, Co, Ce, Mg, and Ag) and noble metals (Pt and Au) with the desired properties and shell structure, such as CuO/Fe2O3, CuO/ZnO, CuO/SnO2, CuO/MgO, CuO/NiO, CuO/Mn2O3, CuO/CoO, CuO/CeO2, CuO/Ag2O, CuO/Pt, CuO/Au hollow cubes, CuO/ZnO double-shell hollow cubes, CuO/SnO2 double-shell hollow octahedra, CuO/SnO2/Fe2O3 and CuO/Mn2O3/NiO double-shell hollow cubes, was developed based on controlled calcination and etching. These hybrid hollow structures were employed not only as support substrates but also as active constituents for catalytic reactions. As an example, we demonstrated that CuO/ZnO hollow cubes are remarkably efficient in converting solid chitin biomass to liquid chemicals in methanol. In addition, CuO/ZnO double-shell hollow cubes were highly effective in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol in the presence of H2O2, whereas CuO/Pt and CuO/Au hollow cubes promoted the oxidation of benzyl alcohol in pure O2. The strategy developed in this work extends the controllable fabrication of high-quality CuO hollow structure-supported nanoparticles using various compositions and shell structures, paving the way to the exploration and systematic comparison of these materials in a wider range of applications.

Preparation of Nano-Porous Activated Carbon Aerogel Using a Single-Step Activation Method for Use as High-Power EDLC Electrode in Organic Electrolyte.

Carbon aerogel was chemically activated with KOH using two different activation methods (conventional activation method and single-step activation method) to yield the nano-porous activated carbon aerogel. Both nano-porous activated carbon aerogels exhibited a better capacitive behavior than carbon aerogel in organic electrolyte. However, a drastic decrease in the specific capacitance with increasing current density was observed in the ACA_C (activated carbon aerogel prepared by a conventional activation method), which is a general tendency of carbon electrode for EDLC in organic electrolyte. Interestingly, the specific capacitance of ACA_S electrode (activated carbon aerogel prepared by a single-step activation method) decreased slowly with increasing current density and its CV curve maintained a rectangular shape well even at a high scan rate of 500 mV/s. The enhanced electrochemical performance of ACA_S at a high current density was attributed to its low ionic resistance caused by the well-developed pore structure with appropriate pore size for easy moving of organic electrolyte ion. Therefore, it can be concluded that single-step activation method could be one of the efficient methods for preparation of nano-porous activated carbon aerogel electrode for high-power EDLC in organic electrolyte.

Photosensitive properties of ZnO/p-SiC heterojunction structures.

We investigated the effect of the substrate temperature (T(s)) on the photosensitive properties of ZnO/4H-SiC structures. A ZnO thin film layer was grown on p-type 4H-SiC substrate (0001) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) deposited at different substrate temperatures (T(s)) of 200, 400, and 600 degrees C, respectively. It was shown that the specific contact resistance of ZnO on p-type 4H-SiC, which was increased from -1.92 x10(-4) to -4.4 omega x cm2 as T(s) increases. On the other hand, the rate of oxygen outdiffusion decreases for the temperature T(s) increase, as observed by transmission line method (TLM) and auger electron spectroscopy (AES) profile. In addition, high photoresponsivity was observed for the ZnO (T(s) -200 degrees C) on p-type 4H-SiC hetero-junction diodes at ultraviolet region (wavelength of -250 nm), comparing to visible (wavelength of -550 nm) and infrared (wavelength of -880 nm). These results may suggest that the ZnO/p-SiC may be applied to optical sensor applications.

Oxidative dehydrogenation of n-butane over vanadium magnesium oxide catalysts supported on nano-structured MgO and ZrO2: effect of oxygen capacity of the catalyst.

Vanadium-magnesium oxide catalysts supported on nano-structured MgO and ZrO2 (Mg3(VO4)2/MgO/ZrO2) were prepared by a wet impregnation method with a variation of Mg:Zr ratio (8:1, 4:1, 2:1, and 1:1). For comparison, Mg3(VO4)2/MgO and Mg3(VO4)2/ZrO2 catalysts were also prepared by a wet impregnation method. The prepared catalysts were applied to the oxidative dehydrogenation of n-butane in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. Mg3(VO4)2/MgO/ZrO2 (Mg:Zr = 4:1, 2:1, and 1:1) and Mg3(VO4)2/ZrO2 catalysts showed a stable catalytic activity during the whole reaction time, while Mg3(VO4)2/MgO/ZrO2 (8:1) and Mg3(VO4)2/MgO catalysts experienced a severe catalyst deactivation. Deactivation of Mg3(VO4)2/MgO/ZrO2 (8:1) and Mg3(VO4)2/MgO catalysts was due to their low oxygen mobility. Effect of oxygen capacity (the amount of oxygen in the catalyst involved in the reaction) of the supported Mg3(V04)2 catalysts on the catalytic performance in the oxidative dehydrogenation of n-butane was investigated. Experimental results revealed that oxygen capacity of the catalyst was closely related to the catalytic activity in the oxidative dehydrogenation of n-butane. A large oxygen capacity of the catalyst was favorable for obtaining a high catalytic activity in this reaction. Among the catalysts tested, Mg3(VO4)2/MgO/ZrO2 (4:1) catalyst with the largest oxygen capacity showed the best catalytic performance.

Hydrogenation of CO to methane over mesoporous nickel-iron-alumina xerogel nano-catalysts.

Mesoporous nickel-iron-alumina xerogel ((40-x)Ni(x)FeAX) nano-catalysts with different iron content (x = 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5, and 10) were prepared by a single-step sol-gel method for use in the methane production from carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The effect of iron content on the catalytic performance of (40-x)Ni(x)FeAX catalysts was investigated. In the methanation reaction, yield for CH4 decreased in the order of 35Ni5FeAX > 32.5Ni7.5FeAX > 30Ni10FeAX > 37.5Ni2.5FeAX > 40Ni0FeAX. This indicated that optimal iron content of mesoporous nickel-iron-alumina xerogel nano-catalyst was required for maximum production of CH4 in the methanation reaction. Experimental results revealed that optimal CO dissociation energy and large H2 adsorption ability of the catalyst were favorable for methane production. Among the catalysts tested, 35Ni5FeAX catalyst, which retained the most optimal CO dissociation energy and the largest H2 adsorption ability, exhibited the best catalytic performance in terms of conversion of CO and yield for CH4 in the methanation reaction. CO dissociation energy and H2 adsorption ability of the catalyst played a key role in determining the catalytic performance of (40-x)Ni(x)FeAX in the methanation reaction.

Nano-sized Ni-doped carbon aerogel for supercapacitor.

Carbon aerogel was prepared by polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde using sodium carbonate as a catalyst in ambient conditions. Nano-sized Ni-doped carbon aerogel was then prepared by a precipitation method in an ethanol solvent. In order to elucidate the effect of nickel content on electrochemical properties, Ni-doped carbon aerogels (21, 35, 60, and 82 wt%) were prepared and their performance for supercapacitor electrode was investigated. Electrochemical properties of Ni-doped carbon aerogel electrodes were measured by cyclic voltammetry at a scan rate of 10 mV/sec and charge/discharge test at constant current of 1 A/g in 6 M KOH electrolyte. Among the samples prepared, 35 wt% Ni-doped carbon aerogel (Ni/CA-35) showed the highest capacitance (110 F/g) and excellent charge/discharge behavior. The enhanced capacitance of Ni-doped carbon aerogel was attributed to the faradaic redox reactions of nano-sized nickel oxide. Moreover, Ni-doped carbon aerogel exhibited quite stable cyclability, indicating long-term electrochemical stability.