Preparation and research of high capacity/high cycle stability porous waste cotton carbon cloth electrode

With the improvement of productivity level, a large number of waste textiles have been produced. The traditional incineration and burial treatment methods for waste textiles not only cause waste of resources but also generate a lot of pollution. In order to make waste cotton have higher added value, activated carbon is prepared by carbonization technology, which makes it have great application value in the field of soil pollution control, medicine, and energy storage. However, the prepared carbon material has disadvantages such as small specific surface area, low capacity, and poor wettability at the interface with the electrolyte. In this paper, Zn²⁺ and NO₃⁻ ions were first introduced into the waste cotton fabrics, and the hollow porous carbon cloth with a high specific surface area was prepared by adjusting the concentration of Zn²⁺ and NO₃⁻ ions and utilizing impregnation-drying-carbonization technology. The results show that Zn(NO₃)₂ has an excellent pore-forming ability, and a hollow carbon cloth with a multi-scale pore structure of micropores, mesopores, and macropores is obtained. The specific surface area is as high as 1257.07 m²·g⁻¹, and the interfacial wettability is excellent. The prepared hollow porous carbon cloth electrode has a specific capacitance up to 251.5 F·g⁻¹ and the capacity retention rate of 100% after 5000 cycles, showing a broad application prospect in the field of energy storage.