Upcycling polyethylene terephthalate plastics into high-performance carbon additives for ultra-long cycle life lead-carbon batteries

This study innovatively employs a two-step process of ball-milling degradation and carbonization to convert waste PET plastics into porous carbon material (PET-C) rich in oxygen-containing functional groups, which functions as a high-performance additive for lead-acid battery anodes while achieving the high-value utilization of waste plastics. Leveraging a unique process design, the prepared PET-C combines a hierarchical pore structure with abundant surface carbonyl/carboxyl functional groups. This synergistic "pore-functional group" effect dramatically improves charge transfer efficiency and effectively inhibits irreversible PbSO 4 deposition. Remarkably, even trace amounts of PET-C substantially improve battery performance—the cycle life of a battery with 1 % PET-C reaches an impressive 21,062 cycles, representing an 11.35-fold increase compared to the control battery (1855 cycles), while a low carbon concentration of 0.3 % PET-C still maintains 7357 cycles. This study pioneers the integration of ball-milling plastic degradation with energy material preparation, thereby presenting a dual-pronged solution to "white pollution" management and lead-carbon battery (LCB) performance enhancement. The research not only elucidates the critical impact of carbon material surface chemistry on battery performance but also demonstrates the successful application of circular economy principles in the field of energy materials.