Finding an optimum period of oxidative heat treatment on SS 316 catalyst for nanocarbon production from LDPE plastic waste

Plastic waste accumulation has become a major health and environmental problems in many parts of the world. Many efforts have been taken to reduce the accumulation, one of which is to convert it into more useful products, such as CNT. CNT have been used for several products to enhance its properties. In this work, Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) plastic waste was used as a feed to produce CNT with the help of wired mesh stainless steel type 316 serving as the catalyst. The stainless steel was pretreated by applying heat under an oxidative environment at 800°C. The time of the pretreatment was varied from 0, 1, 5, 10, and 20 minutes to determine the relationship between the period of the pretreatment and the produced CNT quality. The collected nanocarbons were characterized by using XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, and TGA. It was discovered that CNT was formed from the pretreated catalyst. The best result was obtained from the 10 minutes pretreatment shown by the formation of buckling and continuous growth CNT having an evenly spread carbon with a mean CNT diameter of 7.70 nm, carbon percentage up to 93.3%, and oxidation temperature up to 530°C.