Waste derived low cost PbO-Carbon nanocomposite and its energy storage application

Waste lead acid battery (WLAB) is possible to recycle into lead-carbon batteries (LCB) with improved performance than lead acid batteries (LAB). There is a number of research on the lead-carbon battery using PbOx-C composite. This will develop a sustainable economics of WLAB as well as its environmental concerns, achieving UN SDG goal number 12 for sustainable consumption and production. In this study, lead oxide (PbO) and PbO-carbon composite were prepared using waste lead acid battery and waste high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic. Leaching process was adopted for preparation of PbO nanoparticle from waste lead acid battery electrode. Initially, waste lead acid battery paste was converted to lead citrate and was calcined at 400 degrees C for 60 min to convert PbO nanoparticle. The band gap of PbO nano is found to be 4.17 eV using Tauc plot from UV-vis spectroscopic data. The XRD data shows a massicot phase of PbO nanoparticle of size 62 nm. PbO-Carbon composite was prepared using pyrolysis technique at 600 degrees C taking 1:2 ratio of waste HDPE plastic and PbO NP. The band gap of prepared PbO-Carbon composite is found to be 4.0 eV. The Pt electrode was modified by PbO-carbon composite by casting and drying method using PVDF as a binder to electrode. The capacitance, energy density of the PbO-C nanocomposite modified electrode are found to be 115.33 F/g and 70.63 Wh/kg for scan rate of 0.1 V/s, respectively. The presented study suggests an economically viable process to derive value added products from waste plastic and waste lead acid batteries, to be useful for energy storage application in the form of lead-carbon battery with improved performance than lead-acid battery. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.