Synthesis of carbon nanostructures by chemical vapour deposition over Ni-Al co-oxides using plastic solid waste as precursor
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abstract
Europe contributed with 18.5% of the almost 3!50 Mton of plastics produced worldwide in 2017.
Polypropylene (PP) and light and heavy density polyethylene (LOPE and HOPE, respectively)
represents near 49.1% of the plastics produced in Europe. Packaging is the main application of these
plastics, so typically they have one-single use. In 2014, 25.8 Mton of post-consumer plastic solid wastes
(PSWs) ended up in the official waste streams (54.0% of the demanded quantity), 69.2% being
recovered through recycling (7.7 Mton) and enen~y recovery processes (10.2 Mton), the remaining
30.8% sent to landfill [1]. Concerns about usage and disposal are diverse and include accumulation of
PSWs in landfills and in natural habitats, physic;al problems for wildlife resulting from ingestion or
entanglement in plastic and the leaching of chemicals from plastic products [2]. The incineration of
PSWs contributes to pollution due to harmful and tC»xic emissions and both incineration and mechanical
recycling are costly and may or may not be economically viable in different situations [3]. More attractive
strategies are the production of carbon nanomate!rials using PSWs as carbon precursors [4]. In this
work, Ni-AI eo-oxide nanoparticles were synthesiz,ed by eo-precipitation and employed as catalysts in
the chemical vapour deposition of CNTs when using LOPE as carbon precursor and as model
compound of plastic solid waste. Fig. 1 shows the scanning electron micrographs of the carbon
nanostructures prepared at 1000 °C during 1 h in a tubular furnace under 10 NmL·min·1 nitrogen flow.
As can be observed, CNTs and carbon nanospheres were produced.
This work is a result of Project "PLASTIC_TO_FUEL&IMATs - Upcycling Waste Plastics into Fuel and Carbon
Nanomaterials", with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031439, through the Competitiveness and
Internationalization Operational Program. supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); the
Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM- UID/EQU/50020/2019 - funded by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC);
and CIMO UID/AGR/00690/2019 through FEDER under Program PT2020.
