Upcycling waste plastic into 2D-carbon nanomaterials for high-performance supercapacitors by incorporating NiCo2O4: a sustainable approach to renewable energy

• Main Authors: Bhatt, Diksha, Pathak, Mayank, Thakur, Nishtha, Tatrari, Gaurav, Rath, Tanmoy, Judeh, Zaher, Sahoo, Nanda Gopal
• Other Authors: School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Engineering; Carbon nano-materials; Catalytic pyrolysis
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/181741
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A two-step catalytic pyrolysis technique is utilized to produce reduced graphene oxide (rGO) from waste plastic and a hydrothermal synthetic route to produce NiCo2O4 nanorods and NiCo2O4@WPrGO nanocomposites. The waste plastic derived reduced graphene oxide (WPrGO) provided the conductive network and stimulated the growth of NiCo2O4 nanorods on its surface in order to increase the collection and transportation of electrons during electrochemical charge storage performance. This technique makes NiCo2O4@WPrGO suitable for supercapacitor electrode materials. The electrochemical properties of the composites were evaluated using both two and three-electrode systems in 2 M KOH solution. The outstanding specific capacitance values of the NiCo2O4@WPrGO material and its symmetric prototype cell from CV and GCD were around 1566 F g−1 and 400 F g−1 (at scan rate of 2 mV s−1) and 1105 F g−1 and 334 F g−1 (at current density of 0.5 A g−1), respectively, with 2 M KOH electrolyte. Moreover, the assembled symmetric and asymmetric cell delivers high energy densities of 17 W h kg−1 and 45.08 W h kg−1 at the power densities of 153 W kg−1 and 980 W kg−1 respectively, along with high cycling stability of 86% and 88.5% after 15 000 and 3000 cycles, respectively.