APPROVAL SHEET

This thesis entitled “UTILIZATION OF CIGARETTE BUTTS AS A NITROGEN-DOPED CARBON MATERIAL FOR SUPERCAPACITOR ELECTRODE” prepared and submitted by DE TORRES, ANGELICA M., ILAG, JANELLA*JANE R., AND MALLARI, DONNA JOY R., in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, has been examined and is recommended for approval and acceptance for Oral Examination

__________________________________ENGR. JO-MARIE T. LLAMOSO

Adviser

Approved by the panel on the Oral Examination with grade of _______________.

PANEL OF EXAMINEES

__________________________Dr. Erma B. Quinay

Chairman

_________________________ ________________________Engr. Mary Rose F. Persincula Engr. Rejie C. Magnaye

Member Member

Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

____________________________February 2016 DR. ELISA D. GUTIEREZ Date DEAN, CEAFA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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We, the researchers, want to extend our deepest gratitude to the following who

have helped us in the accomplishment of this study:

To our beloved Mame, Inay and Tatay for their moral, financial and emotional

support all throughout our study;

To Sir Nelson Tumibay of Metals Industry Research and Development

Center, Bicutan, Taguig City, for letting us utilize their equipment for the carbonization

process.

To Metallurgical, Mining and Materials Engineering Department, especially to

Ma’am Joanne Villarias who assisted the researcher in determining the

physicochemical properties of the carbon-based material.

To our Friends and Classmates in helping us collect raw materials and for

always being there to cheer us up when we are feeling down and hopeless.

To Engr. Jo-mhae Llamoso for sharing, teaching and learning together all the

new things that this thesis has brought up from the start to this very end;

And above all these, to our God Almighty, for giving us the strength and wisdom

to whatever we had through all those restless nights and untiring days.

THE RESEARCHERS

DEDICATION

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“After Your Season of Suffering, God in All His Grace Will

Restore, Confirm, Strengthen and Establish You.”1Peter 5:10

To our dear parents,To our brothers and sisters,

To our friends and special someone,To those who believed in the richness of wisdom

and most especially to our Almighty God,

This one is for you…

AngelJanellaDonna

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ABSTRACT

Title: UTILIZATION OF CIGARETTE BUTTS AS A NITROGEN-DOPED CARBON MATERIAL FOR SUPERCAPACITOR ELECTRODE

Authors: De Torres, Angelica M.

Ilag, Janella*Jane R.

Mallari, Donna Joy R.

Adviser: Engr. Jo-Marie Llamoso

Type of Document: Undergraduate Thesis

Name and Address of Institution: Batangas State UniversityAlangilan, Batangas City

SUMMARY

Cigarette smoking is not just a health problem, but a major environmental issue

as well. Trillions of cigarette butts a year get tossed out, often on the ground, where

they cause fires, get ingested by animals and leach chemicals into the ground and

water. This has been a growing problem throughout the years, though cigarette butts

are small, when they are carelessly dropped to the ground instead of disposing it

properly, their litter has a big effect. Numerous researches were done in transforming

this cigarette butts as a solution to human-challenging issues, environmental and

energy problem.

Nowadays, supercapacitors are attracting attention as an energy storage system.

They are of considerable interest in various applications, such as electrical vehicles,

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micro sensors and portable electronic. For such numerous applications, it is important to

develop an advanced generation of supercapacitors that have the capability to supply

high levels of power and energy. Therefore, the selection of the proper electrode

material is one of the most important parameters in improving the performance of

supercapacitors. Moreover, this electrode material could be found in your ashtray.

Transforming cigarette butts into supercapacitor electrode could reduce environmental

burden of cigarette butts while lowering the manufacturing cost of high quality carbon .

The study primarily aims to utilize cigarette butts as a component for

supercapacitor electrode.

Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions:

1. What are the physicochemical properties of the nitrogen-doped carbon material from

cigarette butts in terms of:

1.1. pore size,

1.2. pore volume,

1.3. surface area,

1.4. surface morphology, and

1.5. particle size?

2. What are the different electrochemical properties of the supercapacitor electrode

coated with nitrogen-doped carbon material from cigarette butts in terms of the following

parameters:

2.1. voltage,

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2.2. specific capacitance,

2.3. current density, and

2.4. power density?

3. Is there a significant difference in the above mentioned electrochemical properties

between the supercapacitor electrode coated with nitrogen-doped carbon from cigarette

butts and the commercially available graphene-based supercapacitor electrode?

This study utilized the experimental method of research and focused on the

utilization of cigarette butts as a nitrogen-doped carbon material for supercapacitor

electrode.

Cigarette butts were collected and gathered from the localities of the researcher

particularly from San Jose Sico, Batangas City, Maapaz, Batangas City and Talumpok,

Batangas City. The used and unwrapped cigarette filters/butts of different cigarette

brand were thoroughly mixed together. It was then pyrolyzed in which the carbonization

parameters (i.e. pyrolysis temperature, hold time and heating rate) were not varied; a

single type of nitrogen doped carbon based material from cigarette butts were

produced. The nitrogen flow into the furnace was provided by a nitrogen tank placed

next to the furnace. The obtained nitrogen-doped carbon were removed from the

furnace, ground and sieved to a mesh size of 80 to represent carbon in its powdered

state and then washed several times with hot distilled water and dried for 24 h in an

oven at 110 °C. The nitrogen-doped carbon material produced from pyrolysis of

cigarette butts were used to coat the supercapacitor electrode. The nitrogen-doped

carbon material was mixed with epoxy resin which served as a binder. The mixture was

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spread out and coated onto 5cm×3cm aluminum plate as the current collector. After

coating the electrode materials, the working electrode were pressed and dried in a

vacuum at 120 °C for 12 h. Tissue paper were used as separator and were soaked in to

1M aqueous solution of H2SO4.

Prior to production of supercapacitor electrode, the nitrogen-doped carbon

material derived from pyrolysis of cigarette butts was first subjected to analysis of its

physichochemical properties. The Physicochemical properties of carbon-based material

were determined using analytical methods. Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) Analysis

was used to determine the pore size, pore volume and surface area of the carbon.

Particle Size Analysis for particle size and Field Emission Scanning Electron

Microscopy (FESEM) Imaging Analysis for surface morphology.

The prepared supercapacitor electrode coated with nitrogen-doped carbon

material from cigarette butts was connected into a digital multi tester to record its

voltage and current simultaneously. Measuring this value, electrochemical properties in

terms of specific capacitance, current density and power density was calculated.

One sample T-test was used to analyze if there is a significant difference on the

electrochemical properties of the supercapacitor electrode as compared to the

commercially available graphene-based supercapacitor electrode.

During the experimental method of the study, the researchers had the following

findings:

1. The nitrogen-doped carbon material derived from pyrolysis of cigarette butts was

first subjected to analysis of its physichochemical properties prior to production of

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supercapacitor electrode. The nitrogen-doped carbon-based material from

cigarette butts has a pore size of 2.15 nm. A pore volume of 0.622532 cm3/g is

obtained. Its Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area is 304 m2/g.

Particle Size Analyzer finding of average particle size diameter was 23582.8 nm.

2. Measuring the voltage, current and resistance of the prepared supercapacitor

electrode using digital multi tester, the specific capacitance, current density and

power density was then calculated. The obtained voltage and specific

capacitance of the carbon-based material is 6.3 V and 194.05 F/g respectively.

Current density and power density obtained from carbon-based material is 48.1

A/g and 142.42 W/kg respectively.

3. The p-values obtained for voltage, specific capacitance, current density and

power density are 0.081, 0.03, 0.08 and 0.78, respectively. The p-values are

tested at 0.05 level of significance. Only the specific capacitance has a lower

value of p-value compared to level of significance which indicates a significant

difference between the prepared supercapacitor electrode and the commercially

available graphene-based supercapacitor electrode.

CONCLUSIONS

1. Overall, the results obtained proved that the produced nitrogen- doped carbon

derived from pyrolysis of cigarette butts has good porosity characteristics that

can provide efficient ion transfer.

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2. From the, electrochemical measurement obtained, it was suggested that the

porosity characteristics of the nitrogen doped carbon material from cigarette butts

strongly favor immediate electron and ion transmission. The pseudocapacitive

interactions between the electrolyte ions and the nitrogen dopants, as the result

of nitrogen doping for the nitrogen-doped carbon material from cigarette butts,

leads to an increase in specific capacitance.

3. After treatment, a significant difference on the specific capacitance of the

supercapacitor electrode coated with nitrogen-doped carbon from pyrolysis of

cigarette butts and commercially available graphene-based supercapacitor

electrode was observed. In terms of voltage, current density and power density of

the supercapacitor electrode coated with nitrogen-doped carbon from pyrolysis of

cigarette butts and commercially available graphene-based supercapacitor

electrode, there were no significant difference observed. The nitrogen doped

carbon supercapacitor electrode could be a potential substitute for the graphene–

based supercapacitor electrode.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following are the recommendations that can be considered by the future

researchers:

1. Since the researchers did not consider pretreatment process, future researcher

can consider having pretreatment process for cigarette filters for better surface

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enhancement and availability of binding sites to ions; subsequently enhancing

the capacitive performance of supercapacitor.

2. Varying different parameter conditions for temperature, heating rate and holding

time and also using different brand of cigarette filter can be considered.

3. A further study can potentially utilize other methods to increase the surface area

of the Nitrogen-doped carbon, chemically or physically. This will possibly improve

the degree of porosity in the carbon. The carbonization parameters can be

further adjusted and studied to produce a more uniform and more ordered

mesophorous carbon material.

4. It is also suggested to have a different way on assembling the supercapacitor

electrode.

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