New Method of Fabricating Carbon Materials via Uptake of Nanoplastics into Eichhornia crassipes for Enhancing Supercapacitance

A novel strategy of an in situ design precursor has been proposed by absorbing nanoplastic with Eichhornia crassipes. Eichhornia crassipes as the precursor has natural structural advantages. This natural complex network structure ensures the stability of the material and facilitates the efficient transportation of electrolytes in the whole material. The presence of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS NPs) will change the graphitization degree and promote pore formation in carbon materials during carbonization. The obtained carbon materials have an excellent pore structure, large specific surface area (765.202 m2/g), and high graphitization degree. Meanwhile, the Eichhornia crassipes–polystyrene (EC-PS25) carbon electrode material fabricated from the above plant precursor exhibits a specific capacity of 519.0 F/g at 0.5 A/g. This study provides a new idea for improving the performance of carbon-based electrode materials.