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Reactivated Cathode Material from Waste Alkaline Batteries for Supercapacitor Electrodes: Interplay Study Between
Chandrashekhar S Patil1, Muhammad Noman1, Sourabh B Ghode1
1Department of Ocean System Engineering, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehakro, Jeju, 63243, Republic of Korea.
Recycling waste alkaline batteries (WABs) via pyrometallurgy yields high-performance supercapacitor electrodes. Optimal 600°C treatment creates porous materials with excellent capacitance and stability, supporting a circular economy.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Environmental Science
Background:
- Billions of tons of waste alkaline batteries (WABs) pose environmental and health risks annually.
- Sustainable recycling of WABs aligns with circular economy principles, addressing waste management and energy storage demands.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate pyrometallurgical reactivation of WAB cathode materials at various temperatures.
- To produce high-performance electrode materials for supercapacitors from recycled WABs.
Main Methods:
- Pyrometallurgical treatment of WAB cathode materials at 100, 300, 600, and 1000 °C.
- Characterization of material structure, surface area, and pore volume.
- Electrochemical testing of supercapacitor performance, including capacitance, retention, energy density, and power density.
Main Results:
- Cathode materials treated at 600°C exhibited a porous structure (78.07 m² g⁻¹ surface area, 0.983 cm³ g⁻¹ pore volume).
- Achieved specific capacitance of 1177.16 F g⁻¹ at 3mA cm⁻² in 1M KOH.
- Demonstrated ≈98% capacitance retention over 10,000 cycles.
- Supercapacitors showed energy density of 18.85 Wh kg⁻¹ and power density of 224.01 W kg⁻¹.
Conclusions:
- Pyrometallurgical reactivation at 600°C effectively produces advanced electrode materials from WABs.
- These materials offer a sustainable solution for waste management and energy storage.
- The study highlights the potential for circular economy integration in battery recycling.
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