Abstract
Pyrolysis used to recycle End-of-life (EOL) mining tires generates a by-product called recovered carbon black (rCB), a valuable material with applications in paints, adsorbents, and batteries. However, rCB obtained from the pyrolysis of mining tires typically exhibits a low surface area (<100m2/g), thus requiring additional treatments to enhance its functionality. In this study, rCB obtained from EOL mining tires was activated using CO2 and KOH treatments. The effects of activation temperature, activation time, and KOH:rCB ratio on the structure of resulting activated carbon (AC) were systematically investigated. A maximum BET surface areas (SBET) of 994m2/g and 803m2/g were achieved for KOH-AC and CO2-AC, respectively. Li-ion half-cells were fabricated with both ACs added to commercial lithium titanate (LTO) anodes. Industry standard cells with Super-P carbon had a discharge capacity of 123 mAh/g, while the new LTO anodes achieved discharge capacities of 163 and 164 mAh/g for CO2-AC and KOH-AC, respectively. This improvement was attributed to the higher surface area of ACs, which also enhanced the ionic conductivity of electrodes. Furthermore, the irreversible capacity loss after the first discharge cycle was <10%. This study demonstrates the successful activation and effective use of mining tire-derived rCB as a conductive additive in LTO-based electrochemical systems.