Sulfur-Doped Activated Carbon derived from Discarded Surgical Masks for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Consumption and discarded face masks are urgently driven by the spread of COVID-19 and the flu epidemic and general medical operations. To reduce the severe environmental pollution, the discarded surgical masks were recycled and subsequently prepared as high-added value supercapacitor electrode materials for energy storage. This study synthesized sulfur-doped activated carbon from the discarded face masks. Additionally, nanoscale manganese oxide was incorporated into sulfur-doped activated carbon to improve the electrochemical properties of supercapacitors. The resulting porous materials were analyzed using SEM, BET and XPS. Due to the synergistic effect of activated carbon and nanomanganese oxide, the capacitance of the hybrid electrode increased by more than 20%, and the capacitance retention rate was approximately 80% after 500 cycles.