Sustainable Potassium-Ion Battery Anodes Derived from Waste-Tire Rubber

The recycling of waste-tire rubber is of critical importance since the discarded tires pose serious environmental and health hazards to our society. Here, we report a new application for hard-carbon materials derived from waste-tires as anodes in potassium-ion batteries. The sustainable tire-derived carbons show good reversible potassium insertion at relatively high rates. Long-term stability tests exhibit capacities of 155 and 141 mAh g −1 for carbon pyrolyzed at 1100°C and 1600°C, respectively, after 200 cycles at current rate of C/2. This study provides an alternative solution for inexpensive and environmental benign potassium-ion battery anode materials.