Controllable synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon from metal-polluted miscanthus waste boosting for supercapacitors

High-value reclamation of metal-polluted plants involved in phytoremediation is a big challenge.In this study,nitrogen-doped nanoporous carbon with large specific area of 2359.1 m^(2)g^(-1) is facilely fabricated from metal-polluted miscanthus waste for efficient energy storage.The synergistic effect of KOH,urea and ammonia solution greatly improve the nitrogen quantity and surface area of the synthesized carbon.Electrodes fabricated with this carbon exhibit the excellent capacitance performance of 340.2 F g^(-1) at 0.5 A g^(-1) and a low combined resistance of 0.116Ω,which are competitive with most of previously reported carbon-based electrodes.In addition,the as-obtained carbon electrode shows a high specific capacitance retention of over 99.6%even after 5000 cycles.Furthermore,the symmetric supercapacitor fabricated using the synthesized carbon achieves a superior energy density of 25.3 Wh kg^(-1)(at 400 W kg^(-1))in 1 mol L^(-1) Na_(2)SO_(4)aqueous solution.This work provides an efficient route to upcycle metal-polluted plant waste for supercapacitor applications.

Thermal analysis of olive tree pruning and the by-products obtained by its gasification and pyrolysis: The effect of some heavy metals on their devolatilization behavior

In this work, the effect of the presence of nickel and lead in thermal decomposition of olive tree pruning (OTP), OTP-char and OTP-ashes was studied by thermogravimetry. Experiments were conducted in two kinds of atmosphere (nitrogen atmosphere and oxidizing atmosphere with 20% of O2) at a heating rate of 10 ℃/min. This investigation describes the chemical, physical and fuel properties of the OTP, which shows a similar composition to other lignocellulosic materials such as hazelnut husk and wood sawdust. In addition, SEM analysis indicated that OTP-char surface is higher than OTP surface with plenty of holes and channels. It makes the char an ideal support for metal retention specially for Pb metal (OTP retained 8.55 mg/g whereas OTP char retained 11.57 mg/g). On the other hand, metal retention occurred by adsorption or ion exchange, according to the IR spectrum of the samples. The results of thermogravimetric tests proved that the presence of lead did not have a strong effect on the decomposition of the samples, since TG and DTG curves were very similar. However, nickel increased the mass loss rate, accelerating the decomposition process, showing higher peaks in DTG curves. Additionally, for temperatures higher than 360 ℃, the volatilization of the samples was improved in the nickel-polluted sample, achieving a higher mass loss, getting more energy from the biomass and reducing the quantity of residues left after the process.