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

Reddygunta, Kiran Kumar Reddy and Callander, Andrew and Šiller, Lidija and Faulds (She/Her), Karen and Berlouis, Leonard and Ivaturi, Aruna (2022) Scalable slot-die coated flexible supercapacitors from upcycled PET face shields. RSC Advances. ISSN 2046-2069 (In Press)

[thumbnail of Reddygunta-etal-RSCA-2023-Scalable-slot-die-coated-flexible-supercapacitors-from-upcycled-PET-face-shields] Text. Filename: Reddygunta_etal_RSCA_2023_Scalable_slot_die_coated_flexible_supercapacitors_from_upcycled_PET_face_shields.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only until 27 December 2023.
License: Strathprints license 1.0
Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

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 high specific surface area of 1571 m2 g1 and pore volume of 1.64 cm3 g1. The specific capacitance of these carbon nanostructures 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 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 Wh Kg1 and 20600 W kg1 respectively, and retained 96.2% of the initial capacitance after 10000 cycles at 2 A g1 current density. The present study thus provides a promising sustainable approach for upcycling PET plastic waste for large area printable supercapacitors.

ORCID iDs

Reddygunta, Kiran Kumar Reddy, Callander, Andrew, Šiller, Lidija, Faulds (She/Her), Karen ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5567-7399, Berlouis, Leonard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7217-1680 and Ivaturi, Aruna;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)