Cigarette butts could improve energy storage

Scientists from Seoul National University have converted cigarette butts into a high-performing material that could be integrated into computers, handheld devices, electrical vehicles and wind turbines to store energy. The method also offers a solution to the growing environmental problem caused by the 5.6 trillion cigarette butts deposited into the environment every year.

Writing in the journal Nanotechnology, the researchers described “a one-step method for preparing nitrogen doped (N-doped) meso-/microporous hybrid carbon material (NCF) via the heat treatment of used cigarette filters under a nitrogen-containing atmosphere. The used cigarette filter, which is mostly composed of cellulose acetate fibres, can be transformed into a porous carbon material that contains both the mesopores and micropores spontaneously.”

It is hoped this material can be used to coat the electrodes of supercapacitors - electrochemical components that can store extremely large amounts of electrical energy. Carbon is the most popular material that supercapacitors are composed of, due to its low cost, high surface area, high electrical conductivity and long-term stability.

“A high-performing supercapacitor material should have a large surface area, which can be achieved by incorporating a large number of small pores into the material,” said co-author Professor Jongheop Yi.

“A combination of different pore sizes ensures that the material has high power densities, which is an essential property in a supercapacitor for the fast charging and discharging.”

The researchers’ carbon-based material was attached to an electrode and tested in a three-electrode system to see how well the material could adsorb electrolyte ions (charge) and then release them (discharge). The material stored a higher amount of electrical energy than commercially available carbon and also had a higher amount of storage compared to graphene and carbon nanotubes.

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