Waste tire derived carbon as potential anode for lithium-ion batteries

The uncontrolled accumulation of end-of-life tires every year leads to serious environmental concerns, renderingsetback to the sustainable growth of the society. The most viable solution to overcome this environmental issue is toconvert these hazardness waste tires into value added products. In the present investigation, carbonecous based anodematerials has been developed by a novel chemical activation strategy involving aqua regia followed by controlledpyrolytic condition in the selective atmospheres. Raman spectroscopic study displayed a graphitic carbon withsignificant degree of disordered arrangements. The generation of the turbostratic carbon with higher content of brokencrystal edges is corroborated using the structural characterization such as X-ray diffraction (XRD). This fact is furthercorroborated from surface energy results calculated using the contact angles measured by dynamic wicking method.The prepared turbostratic carbon, when used as lithium anode, renders excellent electrochemical performances withreversible specific capacity of 350 mAhg
(at 300 mAg ) with 81% capacity retention after 500 cycles. The presentresearch provides new roadmap in recycling the waste tires for energy storage applications.