Fabrication of supercapacitor electrode material using carbon derived from waste printer cartridge

Transforming recyclable materials into a suitable product is an important area of research nowadays. This report demonstrates that carbon material derived from waste printer cartridges can be exploited to fabricate electrochemical cells—particularly supercapacitors (SCs). SCs are electrochemical energy storage devices currently attracting much attention in the research community due to their salient features, such as cost-effectiveness, extended cycle stability, and durability. Here, we report the results of thoroughly examining the effects of acidic, basic, and neutral aqueous electrolytes on printer waste carbon electrode material in SC efficiency. In our work, the waste carbon collected from used printer cartridges shows a specific capacitance of 178.4 F/g with energy and power density of 24.77 Wh/kg and 999.68 W/kg, respectively, at 0.5 A/g current density in acidic (1 M H 2 SO 4 ) electrolyte medium. Moreover, it exhibited very promising capacitance of 135.04 F/g and 87.04 F/g in basic (1 M LiOH) and neutral (1 M NaCl) electrolyte medium, respectively, at 0.8 A/g current density with considerably better cycle stability. In an acidic medium, printer waste carbon drives a DC motor for 1 min with a three-cell series arrangement. The properties of that waste carbon (extracted from the cartridges) are similar to high-rate activated carbon available commercially. Graphical Abstract