Carbon Powders Transforming From Waste PP Materials for Optimization of 8 mol% Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Nano-Powders

The wasted disposable polypropylene medical mask is one of the common waste polypropylene materials. The waste mask is characterized by being non-biodegradable and carelessly discarded, which causes serious environmental issues and resource waste. This study aims to investigate the recycling of waste disposable polypropylene medical masks to address the ecological problem and transform them into amorphous carbon powders via the carbonization coupling with the high-energy ball-milling method. The recycled waste mask was applied as a carbon dispersant to prepare high-quality 8YSZ nano-powders and the obtained carbon dispersant owned smaller particle size and higher specific surface area than the commercial activated carbon powders. The as-obtained 8YSZ nano-powders were well-dispersed and nano-sized, which resulted in high relative density and ionic conductivity for the sintered 8YSZ ceramic body. These findings suggest that the proposed strategy in this study can recycle the waste disposable polypropylene medical mask to prepare amorphous carbon powders as a carbon dispersant for obtaining high-quality 8YSZ nano-powders and also provide an idea for the comprehensive utilization of other waste polymer materials.