Multifunctional applications for waste zinc–carbon battery to synthesize carbon dots and symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors

Abstract

In this study, we provide a simple and green approach to recycle waste zinc carbon batteries for making carbon dots and porous carbon material. The carbon dots are easily synthesized by one green step, the hydrothermal treatment of a carbon rod in a mixture of DI water and pure ethanol to obtain a blue fluorescence under UV light, which can be used directly as a fluorescence ink. The as-prepared carbon dot process give typical dots with a uniform diameter from 3 to 8 nm with a strong slight blue fluorescent. The porous carbon material is also recycled from carbon powder in a waste battery via one green step annealing process without any chemical activation and with a hierarchically porous structure. This porous carbon material is demonstrated as an electrode for symmetrical solid state supercapacitors (SSCs) in a sandwich structure: porous carbon/PVA–KOH/porous carbon. The SSCs using recycled porous carbon electrodes exhibit a good energy density of 4.58 W h kg⁻¹ at a power density of 375 W kg⁻¹ and 97.6% retention after 2000 cycles. The facile one green step of hydrothermal and also that of calcination provide a promising strategy to recycle waste zinc carbon batteries, which transfers the excellent applications.