Upcycling of polyurethane waste by mechanochemistry: synthesis of N-doped porous carbon materials for supercapacitor applications

Schneidermann, Christina; Otto, Pascal; Leistenschneider, Desirée; Grätz, Sven; Eßbach, Claudia; Borchardt, Lars

doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.157

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…A mechanochemical solvent-free synthetic method was employed to produce the N-doped carbon materials, where potassium carbonate was used as an activation agent. [180] The synthetic process involved ball milling, followed by pyrolysis at 800°C.…”

Section: Polyurethanesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Approach Towards Plastic Waste Valorization: Challenges and Promising Chemical Upcycling Possibilities

et al. 2021

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Plastic waste, which is one of the major sources of pollution in the landfills and oceans, has raised global concern, primarily due to the huge production rate, high durability, and the lack of utilization of the available waste management techniques. Recycling methods are preferable to reduce the impact of plastic pollution to some extent. However, most of the recycling techniques are associated with different drawbacks, high cost and downgrading of product quality being among the notable ones. The sustainable option here is to upcycle the plastic waste to create high-value materials to compensate for the cost of production. Several upcycling techniques are constantly being investigated and explored, which is currently the only economical option to resolve the plastic waste issue. This Review provides a comprehensive insight on the promising chemical routes available for upcycling of the most widely used plastic and mixed plastic wastes. The challenges inherent to these processes, the recent advances, and the significant role of the science and research community in resolving these issues are further emphasized.

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Section: Polyurethanesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Approach Towards Plastic Waste Valorization: Challenges and Promising Chemical Upcycling Possibilities

et al. 2021

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“…[ 31 ] Likewise, PUR foam waste had also been pyrolyzed under Ar at 800 °C to become N‐doped (1–8 wt%) carbon materials with specific surface areas up to 2150 m 2 g −1 and was also explored for supercapacitor purposes. [ 32 ] These examples and others that describe the carbonization of waste plastics into carbon nanomaterials have already been reviewed elsewhere. [ 23 ]…”

Section: Thermal Upcycling Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Upcycling to Sustainably Reuse Plastics

et al. 2021

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The annual production is still growing and is expected to continue, meaning that it is imperative for us to plan for a future that will have even more plastics.Yet, the ubiquity of plastics has been recognized to be a double-edged sword. It was estimated that 8300 Mt of virgin plastics were produced between 1950 to 2015, but 6300 Mt of them had become plastic waste with 79% accumulated in landfills or the natural environment such as the waterways and the ocean. [1a] In 2015 alone, around 302 Mt or 74% of the annual production had become waste, with only 14% recycled, 14% combusted, and the remainder exposed to the environment (Table 1). [2] Over 8 Mt of plastics are believed to be added to the aquatic ecosystems every year since 2010, [3] with samples being discovered in some of the remotest marine ecosystems like the Mariana trench, including some dating as far back as 1957. [4] The increase in ocean plastics has been especially dramatic since the 1990s. [4a] Besides being potentially toxic by compromising the immune system in different organisms, plastics have also been found to disrupt global biogeochemical cycles such as nitrification and denitrification. [5] Furthermore, the enormous volumes of plastics being produced, converted, and disposed have been estimated to contribute almost 1800 Mt of CO 2 -equivalents (CO 2 e) in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2015, with the majority (61% or 1085 Mt) generated at the production stage, 30% or 535 Mt during conversion, and the remaining 9% or 161 Mt from the end of life disposal (Table 2). [6] Alarmingly, the current trajectory in growth of plastics consumption suggests that around 6500 Mt of CO 2 e in GHG emissions (15% of the global carbon budget) is expected by 2050. [6] In 2020, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, even more plastic wastes are being generated due to increases in the use of food and other packaging materials, as well as the proliferation of single use disposal face masks. This has resulted in a surge in criminal recycling scams where plastic wastes from Europe and North America are being illegally exported to Asian countries to artificially inflate the recycling rates in the countries of origin. [7] Patently, more sustainable approaches are needed to manage the entire life cycle of plastics from production to end of life.To manage the inexorable growth of plastics production and waste, one strategy can be to adopt a zero waste hierarchy that was proposed by the European Commission's Waste Plastics are now indispensable in daily lives. However, the pollution from plastics is also increasingly becoming a serious environmental issue. Recent years have seen more sustainable approaches and technologies, commonly known as upcycling, to transform plastics into value-added materials and chemical feedstocks. In this review, the latest research on upcycling is presented, with a greater focus on the use of renewable energy as well as the more selective methods to repurpose synthetic polymers. First, thermal upcycling approaches are briefly introduced, inc...

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“…Mechanochemistry enables researchers to conduct reactions in solvent-free conditions (neat grinding, NG) or in the presence of small amounts of solvents (liquid-assisted grinding, LAG) [ 6 ]. Recent studies have indicated that mechanochemistry can be implemented for the preparation of highly porous carbon materials from sustainable precursors and non-hazardous activators [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. For example, Schneidermann et al [ 12 ] prepared N-doped carbons with high porosity from diverse wood components—lignin (SSA of 3199 m 2 ·g −1 ), tannic acid (SSA of 2873 m 2 ·g −1 ), wood waste (SSA of 2988 m 2 ·g −1 ), cellulose (SSA of 1870 m 2 ·g −1 ) and xylan (SSA of 1163 m 2 ·g −1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly Porous Carbons Synthesized from Tannic Acid via a Combined Mechanochemical Salt-Templating and Mild Activation Strategy

et al. 2021

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Highly porous activated carbons were synthesized via the mechanochemical salt-templating method using both sustainable precursors and sustainable chemical activators. Tannic acid is a polyphenolic compound derived from biomass, which, together with urea, can serve as a low-cost, environmentally friendly precursor for the preparation of efficient N-doped carbons. The use of various organic and inorganic salts as activating agents afforded carbons with diverse structural and physicochemical characteristics, e.g., their specific surface areas ranged from 1190 m2·g−1 to 3060 m2·g−1. Coupling the salt-templating method and chemical activation with potassium oxalate appeared to be an efficient strategy for the synthesis of a highly porous carbon with a specific surface area of 3060 m2·g−1, a large total pore volume of 3.07 cm3·g−1 and high H2 and CO2 adsorption capacities of 13.2 mmol·g−1 at −196 °C and 4.7 mmol·g−1 at 0 °C, respectively. The most microporous carbon from the series exhibited a CO2 uptake capacity as high as 6.4 mmol·g−1 at 1 bar and 0 °C. Moreover, these samples showed exceptionally high thermal stability. Such activated carbons obtained from readily available sustainable precursors and activators are attractive for several applications in adsorption and catalysis.

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Upcycling of polyurethane waste by mechanochemistry: synthesis of N-doped porous carbon materials for supercapacitor applications

Cited by 20 publications

References 67 publications

Strategic Approach Towards Plastic Waste Valorization: Challenges and Promising Chemical Upcycling Possibilities

Strategic Approach Towards Plastic Waste Valorization: Challenges and Promising Chemical Upcycling Possibilities

Upcycling to Sustainably Reuse Plastics

Highly Porous Carbons Synthesized from Tannic Acid via a Combined Mechanochemical Salt-Templating and Mild Activation Strategy

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