Tailored recovery of carbons from waste tires for enhanced performance as anodes in lithium-ion batteries

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 4; no. 72; p. 38213
• Main Authors: Naskar, Amit K., Bi, Zhonghe, Li, Yunchao, Akato, Sam K., Saha, Dipendu, Chi, Miaofang, Bridges, Craig A., Paranthaman, M. Parans
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 2014
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/C4RA03888F

Morphologically tailored pyrolysis-recovered carbon black is utilized in lithium-ion batteries as a potential solution for adding value to waste tire-rubber-derived materials. Micronized tire rubber was digested in a hot oleum bath to yield a sulfonated rubber slurry that was then filtered, washed, and compressed into a solid cake. Carbon was recovered from the modified rubber cake by pyrolysis in a nitrogen atmosphere. The chemical pretreatment of rubber produced a carbon monolith with higher yield than that from the control (a fluffy tire-rubber-derived carbon black). The carbon monolith showed a very small volume fraction of pores of widths 3 4 nm, reduced specific surface area, and an ordered assembly of graphitic domains. Electrochemical studies on the recovered-carbon-based anode revealed an improved Li-ion battery performance with higher reversible capacity than that of commercial carbon materials. Anodes made with a sulfonated tire-rubber-derived carbon and a control tire-rubber-derived carbon, respectively, exhibited an initial coulombic efficiency of 80% and 45%, respectively. The reversible capacity of the cell with the sulfonated carbon as anode was 400 mAh/g after 100 cycles, with nearly 100% coulombic efficiency. Our success in producing higher performance carbon material from waste tire rubber for potential use in energy storage applications adds a new avenue to tire rubber recycling.