New green electrode materials derived from waste cigarette butts for capacitive deionization

Smoked cigarette butts are a non-biodegradable pollutant that has damaged the planet. However, carbon materials derived from cigarette butts have proven to be suitable for various applications. We synthesized cigarette butt-derived carbon via hydrothermal carbonization and chemical activation methods and then converted it to an electrode material for capacitive deionization. The fabricated material, SCC-750, exhibited a relatively high salt adsorption capacity of 10.27 mg g−1. The excellent CDI (capacitive deionization) performance is due to the high specific surface area of 3,093.10 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of 1.754 cm3 g−1. This work offers a new method to recycle harmful cigarette butts by converting them into promising electrode materials for capacitive deionization. Highlights Explore the influence of chemical activation temperature and compare the capacitive deionization performance of the carbon material derived from smoked cigarette butts and unsmoked cigarette butts.; Smoked cigarette butt-derived carbon at the activation temperature of 750 °C exhibits high specific surface area of 3,093.10 m2 g−1, high pore volume of 1.75 cm3 g−1, and reaches a high salt adsorption capacity 10.27 mg g−1.