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, rendering setback to the sustainable growth of the society. The most viable solution to overcome this environmental issue is to convert these hazardness waste tires into value added products. In the present investigation, carbonecous based anode materials has been developed by a novel chemical activation strategy involving aqua regia followed by controlled pyrolytic condition in the selective atmospheres. Raman spectroscopic study displayed a graphitic carbon with significant degree of disordered arrangements. The generation of the turbostratic carbon with higher content of broken crystal edges is corroborated using the structural characterization such as X-ray diffraction (XRD). This fact is further corroborated 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 with reversible specific capacity of 350 mAhg-1 (at 300 mAg-1) with 81% capacity retention after 500 cycles. The present research provides new roadmap in recycling the waste tires for energy storage applications.

Electrochemically Exfoliated Graphene for Nanosensor Applications.

Water dispersible graphene layer are the excellent nano materials used for wide range of electronic applications. High quality graphene was synthesized by an eco-friendly, easy and cost effective electrochemical exfoliation method. In this work, graphite rod was used both as an anode and cathode for the production of graphene. Potassium sulphate (K2SO4) was used as an intercalating agent. Electrochemically exfoliated graphene (EEG) was coated on glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and evaluated towards the electrochemical oxidation of vanillin and L-phenylalanine. The fabricated electrode was able to detect vanillin and L-Phenylalanine as low as 0.2 µM with signal to noise ratio of 3. A significant increase in the current was observed for the graphene coated electrode for both vanillin and L-phenylalanine when compared to bare Glassy electrode. The finding clearly demonstrated the higher detection capability, selectivity and reproducibility of EEG.