Sustainable electrode material from waste plastic for modern energy storage devices

Abstract

Among the total 17 UN-SDGs (sustainable development goals) proposed by the United Nations, the goal 7 basically ensures easy global availability of sustainable, clean, cost effective, reliable, and modern energy. Researchers are primarily concentrating on renewable energy sources in this direction since they are sustainable, clean, and environmentally friendly. But there are numerous obstacles, such as their low reliability, irregular nature, remote availability, and so forth, that prevent them from being widely used in commercial applications. Combining these renewable energy sources with effective and affordable energy storage technologies can be a promising solution to approach concerns including rising energy consumption, reliable and consistent electric power, and better grid stability. Modern energy storage systems such as electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) and lithium-ion batteries have a great deal of potential for a wide range of applications. Carbon-derived materials are the most flexible and fundamental materials for the storage and conversion of modern energy. Since it requires the pyrolysis and activation of expensive starting materials like wood, petroleum, and coal, the commercially produced activated carbon is costly and unsustainable. Due to rapidly increasing amount of plastic waste and the requirement for sustainable development, the conversion of waste plastics into valuable yet inexpensive carbon nanomaterials have attracted significant research interest. Their outstanding capability for charge accumulation and transportation is due to their enormous surface area, high chemical stability, and electrical conductivity in combination with low density. The present article examines the necessity and the efforts undertaken to develop supercapacitors and Li-ion batteries as sustainable modern energy storage devices using recycled waste plastic.