Turning waste tyres into carbon electrodes for batteries: exploring conversion methods, material traits, and performance factors

Waste tyres (WTs) are a major global issue that needs immediate attention to ensure a sustainable environment. They are often dumped in landfills or incinerated in open environments, which leads to environmental pollution. However, various thermochemical conversion methods have shown promising results as treatment routes to tackle the WT problem while creating new materials for industries. One such material is WT char, which has properties comparable to those of carbon materials used as an active electrode material in batteries. Therefore, a systematic review of the various thermochemical approaches used to convert WTs into carbon materials for electrode applications was conducted. The review shows that pretreatment processes, various process routes, and operating parameters affect derived carbon properties and its respective electrochemical performance. WT-derived carbon has the potential to yield a high specific capacity greater than the traditional graphite (372 mAh g−1) commonly used in lithium-ion batteries. Finally, the review outlines the challenges of the process routes, as well as opportunities and future research directions for electrode carbon materials from WTs.