Transforming waste polypropylene face masks into S-doped porous carbon as the cathode electrode for supercapacitors.

The spread of COVID-19 has led to an explosive increase in the number of waste polypropylene face masks worldwide, landfill and incineration of which will cause serious pollution and resource waste. This study aims to develop a new method for the safe and high-added value reuse of materials for polypropylene face masks based on carbonization of porous polymer. The waste masks were first sulfonated in an autoclave, then used as carbon source and turned into a dense hollow fiber porous structure after a one-step heat treatment. This porous structure has a high specific capacitance, namely 328.9 F g at a current density of 1 A g. Besides, the assembled solid-state capacitor possesses a good energy density of 10.4 W h kg at a power density of 600 W kg, and excellent cycling stability with a capacitance retention rate of 81.1% after 3000 cycles. These findings indicate that the novel carbonization technology in this study can not only be used to obtain high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials but also provide a new idea for the recycling and utilization of wastes such as medical devices.