Lightweight Carbon Foam obtained from post-use Polyehylene Terephthalate bottles and potential applications

Abstract Faced with the problem caused by the excessive consumption of plastic packaging, especially those produced with Polyethylene Terephthalate - PET, and most of them have garbage as their final destination, such packaging has become a worrying environmental liability. Their often inadequate disposal promotes the pollution of soils, watercourses, oceans and even the presence of component materials of these packages in the human body, in the form of microplastics, has been observed. As research in the area advances, greater concerns arise, as more problems arising from the excessive use and disposal of plastics are identified. As something needs to be done to remove this liability from the environment, a technology was developed for the production of materials with characteristics similar to 3D graphene, a carbon material with qualities and versatility that allow its wide use in several applications, using PET as carbon precursor. This work presents this production technology with possible variables, the characterization of the materials and potential applications: for the electronics area, as supercapacitors and necessary improvements to validate it, and as an adsorbent for application in the treatment of industrial effluents.