Performance Evaluation of Waste Tyre-Activated Carbon As a Hybrid Supercapacitor Electrode

The increase in the world population has resulted in an increase in vehicle production by most automobile companies. It is expected that vehicle production will increase from 1.2 billion to 2 billion by 2035. Thus, automobile industries produce approximately 1.5 billion tyres annually, which gradually turn into waste products. Recycling waste tyres into a valuable material is essential in other to promote an ecofriendly society which also contributes to the sustainable development goals 3, 7, 9, 12 and 13. Recently, researchers have focused on developing supercapacitor electrode materials for energy storage from waste tyres. This paper investigates the effect of KOH activation and iron oxide doping on the physical, chemical and electrochemical properties of the raw waste tyre-derived carbon (RWTDC). The raw waste tyre-derived carbon (RWTDC) was activated at 900 degrees C for 3 h, followed by the incorporation of the iron oxide ( Fe2O3). The fabricated electrodes were subjected to chemical and electrochemical analysis (including X-Ray fluorescence analysis, X-Ray diffraction analysis, FTIR analysis, BET analysis, FE-SEM, cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis, galvanostatic charge and discharge (GCD) analysis, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis). The iron incorporation activated waste tyre-derived carbon (IIAWTDC) electrode material recorded the highest performance in all the electrochemical analyses with a capacitance of 1400 F/g at 1 A/g. The results suggests that the fabricated electrodes can be used as a hybrid supercapacitor electrode in supercapacitor applications.