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Porous carbon derived from waste polystyrene foam for supercapacitor

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Abstract

Polystyrene, one of the classical plastic, has caused serious environmental problems due to overuse and inability to recycle effectively. Transforming it into functional carbon materials is one of the effective ways to recycle polystyrene and other waste plastics, which has drawn the attention. In this study, we have developed a facile and efficient method for the preparation of three-dimensional (3D) network structure porous carbon (PC) via the Friedel–Crafts reaction with waste polystyrene serves as carbon source. Notably, the constructed carbonyl (–CO–) cross-linking bridges between the linear polystyrenes provide the resulting hierarchical porous polystyrene with a high cross-linking density and amounts of oxygen atoms to achieve the carbonizability of cross-linking polystyrene framework. Moreover, silica particles created more porous structure for carbon material. The prepared PC showed large specific surface area and 3D porous structure and exhibited good capacitance and electrochemical stability as electrode materials for supercapacitor.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21676070), Hebei Natural Science Foundation (B2015208109), Hebei Training Program for Talent Project (A201500117), Hebei One Hundred-Excellent Innovative Talent Program (III) (SLRC2017034), Hebei Science and Technology Project (17214304D, 16214510D).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, 050018, China

    Yixin Zhang, Zhimin Shen, Yifeng Yu, Lei Liu, Guoxu Wang & Aibing Chen

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  1. Yixin Zhang
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  2. Zhimin Shen
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  3. Yifeng Yu
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  4. Lei Liu
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  5. Guoxu Wang
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  6. Aibing Chen
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Correspondence to Aibing Chen.

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Zhang, Y., Shen, Z., Yu, Y. et al. Porous carbon derived from waste polystyrene foam for supercapacitor. J Mater Sci 53, 12115–12122 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2513-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2513-z

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