article · Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Growing demand for affordable energy storage components has led to extensive research into producing supercapacitor electrodes from waste materials. Diverse waste precursors, spanning industrial refuse, plastics, and various biowastes from plant and animal sources, serve as feedstocks for carbon-based electrodes. The energy storage performance of these waste-derived electrodes relies on unique structural features, though notable performance hurdles persist. Recent manufacturing advances focus on tuning electrode properties through specific synthesis pathways, including pyrolysis, hydrothermal treatment, microwave-assisted methods, template-assisted processing, and sol-gel techniques. Furthermore, combining these carbons with other materials into composites effectively tailors electrochemical capabilities. This review synthesises progress across these synthesis routes, highlights the benefits of waste valorisation for renewable energy storage, and outlines future research pathways alongside existing scaling challenges.
Renewable energy systems require affordable, sustainable energy storage to operate reliably. Repurposing municipal, industrial, and agricultural waste into functional electronic materials addresses two challenges at once: diverting harmful refuse from the environment and lowering the manufacturing cost of clean energy technologies like supercapacitors.
This work informs developers of renewable energy storage systems and waste-management companies seeking valorisation pathways. Because the review focuses on synthesis techniques, material challenges, and scaling hurdles, the technology remains largely at an early to applied research stage, requiring solutions to industrial processing and scaling bottlenecks before commercial manufacturing can occur.
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Abstract The increasing demand for cost-effective materials for energy storage devices has prompted investigations into diverse waste derived electrode materials for supercapacitors (SCs) application. This review examines advancements in converting waste into carbon-based SCs for renewable energy storage. In this context, different carbon-based waste precursor sources have been explored over the years as electrodes in SCs. These waste sources comprise of industrial, plastics and biowastes, including plant and animal wastes. The energy storage capabilities of the various waste derived SCs electrodes are highlighted to provide an understanding into the unique features that make them applicable to SCs. In addition, some challenges associated with the waste-derived SCs electrodes in terms of energy storage have been emphasized. Here, we also provided insights into the recent progress in SCs electrode synthesis techniques and their effects on electrochemical performance. SCs performance tailoring with material structures through the incorporation of different materials to form composites and optimized synthesis methods is an effective strategy. Hence, the synthesis methods outlined include pyrolysis, hydrothermal, microwave-assisted, template-assisted, and sol–gel techniques. The effect of the various synthesis methods on SCs performance has also been discussed. Overall, this review highlights waste valorization with future research directions and scaling challenges.
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DOI: 10.1007/s40243-024-00285-4
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