Because plastics are cheap and light, their use is indispensable in our daily lives. However, the extensive use of plastics causes the disposal issue. Among various disposal processes, plastic recycling is of great attention because of minimizing waste and harmful byproducts. Herein, we recycle the most popular thermoplastic materials, high-density and low-density polyethylene, producing the anode materials for the Li-ion batteries. The electrochemical properties of the as-recycled soft carbon are investigated to study the energy storage capability as the anode of Li-ion batteries. Our work demonstrates the soft carbon recycled from plastic wastes is a promising anode material.

Recycling of polyethylene via hydrothermal carbonization for the Li-ion battery anode
    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Materials and methods
    3 Results and discussion
    4 Conclusions
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• Soonhyun Hong(Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea)
• Jahun Ku(Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea)
• Sunhye Park(Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea)
• Jungjin Park(Clean Energy Research Division, Energy Storage Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea)
• Young‑Sang Yu(Department of Physics, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea)
• Chunjoong Kim(Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author