Hetero carbon structures derived from waste plastics as an efficient electrocatalyst for water splitting and high-performance capacitors

The demand of clean renewable energy sources and storage devices has led to the development of new materials. Hydrogen is a promising energy source having high efficiency compared to the diminishing fossil fuels. To commercialize hydrogen as the energy source and reduce the production cost, replacement of Pt-based catalysts with a cost-effective and efficient electrocatalyst is the current need of the day. In the present study, hetero carbon structures (HCS) have been fabricated in a single step from plastic waste in an autoclave. The morphological studies confirm the presence of heterostructures. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy studies predict the graphitic nature of synthesized HCS. The synthesized HCS are found to have high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance with the enhanced current density of 50 mAcm⁻² and higher stability up to 3000 cyclic voltammetry (CV) cycles. The chronoamperometry (CA) results also revealed 12 h stability. The electric double-layer capacitance of (EDLC, C_dl) of 3.5 mFcm⁻² and specific capacitance retention (%) for 12000 CV cycles reveal that the synthesized material is a promising low-cost candidate for electrode fabrication. The study also predicts a path of plastic waste utilization to get the useful product from waste plastics through an environment friendly route.