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Surgical face masks waste is a source of microplastics (polymer fibres) and inorganic and organic compounds potentially hazardous for aquatic organisms during degradation in water. The monthly use of face masks in the world is about 129 billion for 7.8 billion people. Therefore, in this contribution the utilization of hazardous surgical face masks waste for fabrication of carbon-based electrode materials via KOH-activation and carbonization was investigated. The micro-mesoporous materials were obtained with specific surface areas in the range of 460 - 969 m 2 /g and a total pore volume of 0.311 - 0.635 cm 3 /g. The optimal sample showed superior electrochemical performance as an electrode material in supercapacitor in the three-electrode system, attaining 651.1F/g at 0.1 Ag -1 and outstanding capacitance retention of 98 % after a test cycle involving 50'000 cycles. It should be emphasized that capacitance retention is one of the most crucial requirements for materials used as the electrodes in the supercapacitor devices. In this strategy, potentially contaminated face masks, common pandemic waste, is recycled into highly valuable carbon material which can serve in practical applications overcoming the global energy crisis. What is more, all microorganisms, including coronaviruses that may be on/in the masks, are completely inactivated during KOH-activation and carbonization., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Heteroatom-doped three-dimensional (3D) porous carbons possess great potential as promising electrodes for high-performance supercapacitors. Inspired by the inherent features of intumescent flame retardants (IFRs) with universal availability, rich heteroatoms and easy thermal-carbonization to form porous carbons, herein we proposed a self-assembling and template self-activation strategy to produce N/P dual-doped 3D porous carbons by nano-CaCO 3 template-assistant carbonization of IFRs. The IFRs-derived carbon exhibited large specific surface area, well-balanced hierarchical porosity, high N/P contents and interconnected 3D skeleton. Benefitting from these predominant characteristics on structure and composition, the assembled supercapacitive electrodes exhibited outstanding electrochemical performances. In three-electrode 6 M KOH system, it delivered high specific capacitances of 407 F g -1 at 0.5 A g -1 , and good rate capability of 61.2% capacitance retention at 20 A g -1 . In two-electrode organic EMIMBF 4 /PC system, its displayed high energy density of 62.8 Wh kg -1 at a power density of 748.4 W kg -1 , meanwhile it had excellent cycling stability with 84.7% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles. To our best knowledge, it is the first example to synthesize porous carbon from IFRs precursor. Thus, the current work paved a novel and low-cost way for the production of high-valued carbon material, and expanded its application for high-performance energy storage devices., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbon (CN x -Co) samples embedded with cobalt nanoparticles are selectively prepared with polyethylenimine (PEI) as both the carbon and nitrogen sources. By processing at different temperature, CN x -Co-800 and CN x -Co-1000 are selectively prepared and the materials exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The ORR measurements show that sample processed at the higher temperature delivers better performance due to the larger Co and graphitic nitrogen concentrations. CN x -Co-1000 also shows more tolerance against methanol crossover and outstanding durability towards ORR, making it a promising Pt-free electrocatalyst for ORR under alkaline conditions. The method demonstrated here is a general strategy to prepare other metal or metal alloy/porous carbon hybrid materials., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, magnetic Fe@graphite nanocomposite (Fe@G-N) with a core-shell structure was prepared by chemical vapor deposition CVD process for the adsorptive removal of anionic dyes from aqueous solutions. Fe@G-N was characterized by XRD, HRTEM, HAADF-STEM, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, BET and zeta potential measurements, and then applied in adsorption of two kinds of anionic dyes, Acid Red 88 (AR88) and Direct Orange 26 (DO26). The effect of parameters like initial dye concentration (5-40mgL -1 ), pH solution (4-10) and temperature (20-60°C) on the adsorption process was studied. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order kinetic models and the intraparticle diffusion model were used to describe the kinetic data. A kinetic study indicated that a pseudo-second-order model agreed well with the experimental data. The experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. Adsorption equilibrium studies showed that adsorption of AR88 and DO26 followed the Langmuir model. Thermodynamic parameters such as Gibbs free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°) and entropy (ΔS°) were also obtained and analyzed., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In the present study, graphene oxide (GO) was used for the adsorption of anionic azo-dyes such as Acid Orange 8 (AO8) and Direct Red 23 (DR23) from aqueous solutions. GO was characterized by Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) and zeta potential measurements. The influence of dye initial concentration, temperature and pH on AO8 and DR23 adsorption onto GO was investigated. Equilibrium data were analyzed by model equations such as Langmuir Freundlich, Temkin, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Redlich-Peterson isotherms and were best represented by Langmuir and Redlich-Peterson isotherm model. Kinetic adsorption data were analyzed using the pseudo-first-order kinetic model, the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the intraparticle diffusion model. The adsorption kinetics well fitted using a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamics parameters, ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS°, were calculated, indicating that the adsorption of AO8 and DR23 onto GO was spontaneous process. The adsorption process of AO8 onto GO was exothermic, while the adsorption of DR23 onto GO was endothermic in nature., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Novel porous cup-stacked carbon nanotube (P-CSCNT) with special stacked morphology consisting of many truncated conical graphene layers was synthesized by KOH activating CSCNT from polypropylene. The morphology, microstructure, textural property, phase structure, surface element composition and thermal stability of P-CSCNT were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope (TEM), high-resolution TEM, N2 sorption, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis. A part of oblique graphitic layers were etched by KOH, and many holes with a diameter of several to a doze of nanometers connecting inner tube with outside were formed, which endowed P-CSCNT with high specific surface area (558.7 m(2)/g), large pore volume (1.993 cm(3)/g) and abundant surface functional groups. Subsequently, P-CSCNT was used for adsorption of methylene blue (MB) from wastewater. Langmuir model closely fitted the adsorption results, and the maximum adsorption capacity of P-CSCNT was as high as 319.1mg/g. This was ascribed to multiple adsorption mechanisms including pore filling, hydrogen bonding, π-π and electrostatic interactions. Pseudo second-order kinetic model was more valid to describe the adsorption behavior. Besides, P-CSCNT showed good recyclablity and reusability. These results demonstrated that P-CSCNT had potential application in wastewater treatment., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A magnetic ZnFe2O4 (MNZnFe) was synthesized by microwave assisted hydrothermal method and was used as an adsorbent for the removal of acid dye Acid Red 88 (AR88) from aqueous solution. The effects of various parameters such as initial AR88 concentration (10-56 mg L(-1)), pH solution (3.2-10.7), and temperature (20-60°C) were investigated. Prepared magnetic ZnFe2O4 was characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, ICP-AES, BET, FTIR, and measurements of the magnetic susceptibility. The experimental data were analyzed by the Langmuir and Freundlich models of adsorption. Equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir model. Pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models and intraparticle diffusion model were used to examine the adsorption kinetic data. The adsorption kinetics was found to follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamics parameters, ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS°, indicate that the adsorption of AR88 onto MNZnFe was spontaneous and exothermic in nature., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)