Upcycling discarded duck down into highly porous and nitrogen/oxygen dually doped graphitic carbon for admirable energy and CO2 storage

The convenient fabrication of heteroatom self-doped porous carbons from various biomasses has become a hot topic due to their unique advantages in environmental and energy-related applications. In this study, N/O self-doped and sheet-like graphitic porous carbons were successfully prepared by straightforward catalytic activation of recycled duck down with mixed ZnCl 2 -FeCl 3 salts. During the synthesis, FeCl 3 exerts impressive influence on the microstructure of the derived carbons. The obtained porous carbon can deliver an impressive gravimetric capacitance of 222 F g −1 along with powerful retention rate of 80% up to 10 A g −1 , as well as all-right capacity preservation of 109% after 5,000 cycles, owing to the favorable textural structure with readily accessible active surface area, rapid electrolyte transport channels, moderate graphitization level, and advantageous surface chemistry of rich heteroatoms co-doping. Additionally, the as-synthesized carbons also exhibit superior CO 2 uptake capacity up to 4.4 mmol g −1 under ambient conditions. The stored CO 2 in the carbons can be readily recycled into Na 2 CO 3 by impregnation with NaOH solution towards sustainable carbon sequestration . The present work affords a feasible strategy for massive reutilization of discarded duck down to manufacture advanced active carbons for applications including energy storage systems and CO 2 capture.