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Fabrication of supercapacitor electrode material using carbon derived from waste printer cartridge

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Abstract

Transforming recyclable materials into a suitable product is an important area of research nowadays. This report demonstrates that carbon material derived from waste printer cartridges can be exploited to fabricate electrochemical cells—particularly supercapacitors (SCs). SCs are electrochemical energy storage devices currently attracting much attention in the research community due to their salient features, such as cost-effectiveness, extended cycle stability, and durability. Here, we report the results of thoroughly examining the effects of acidic, basic, and neutral aqueous electrolytes on printer waste carbon electrode material in SC efficiency. In our work, the waste carbon collected from used printer cartridges shows a specific capacitance of 178.4 F/g with energy and power density of 24.77 Wh/kg and 999.68 W/kg, respectively, at 0.5 A/g current density in acidic (1 M H2SO4) electrolyte medium. Moreover, it exhibited very promising capacitance of 135.04 F/g and 87.04 F/g in basic (1 M LiOH) and neutral (1 M NaCl) electrolyte medium, respectively, at 0.8 A/g current density with considerably better cycle stability. In an acidic medium, printer waste carbon drives a DC motor for 1 min with a three-cell series arrangement. The properties of that waste carbon (extracted from the cartridges) are similar to high-rate activated carbon available commercially.

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Acknowledgements

B.R.B. and S.M. thank the University Grant Commission (UGC) and the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, for financial assistance in carrying out the research. All authors acknowledge the support received from the Central Research Facility (CRF) at NITK and the Ministry of Education (MoE).

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  1. Sukanya Maity

    Present address: Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, 58183, Linköping, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Low Dimensional Physics Laboratory, Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 575025, India

    Bhimaraya R. Biradar, Sukanya Maity & Partha Pratim Das

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, 502284, India

    Pranay R. Chandewar & Debaprasad Shee

  3. Materials and Catalysis Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 575025, India

    Sib Sankar Mal

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Contributions

B.R.B.: visualization, investigation, writing original draft, preparation, software. S.M.: data curation. P.R.C.: data curation. D.S.: writing—reviewing and editing. P.P.D.: supervision, validation, reviewing, and editing. S.S.M.: conceptualization, methodology, writing—reviewing and editing, supervision.

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Correspondence to Partha Pratim Das or Sib Sankar Mal.

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Biradar, B.R., Maity, S., Chandewar, P.R. et al. Fabrication of supercapacitor electrode material using carbon derived from waste printer cartridge. Ionics 30, 2273–2285 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-024-05402-x

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