A critical review on graphene oxide nanostructured material: Properties, Synthesis, characterization and application in water and wastewater treatment

Abstract

Graphene oxide is an emerging nanomaterial with diverse applications for energy storage, conversation (electrodes) and industrial wastewater treatment (adsorbent and photocatalysts) because of their outstanding electrical, thermal and chemical properties. In view of this background, this review paper examines the properties, preparation methods and characterization techniques for graphene oxide (GO) nanostructured materials. A brief strategy for improving GO efficiency such as doping/co-doping GO with selected heterogeneous semiconductor metal oxides was provided. The immobilisation of GO with a high bandgap material resulting to the shifting of absorption threshold to the visible region and enhancement of photoactivity performance were also discussed. The application of GO based nanomaterial in Fenton like reaction, ozonation, photocatalysis, photo-Fenton, photoelectrocatalysis and combination of photocatalysis and photon-Fenton for water treatment applications were provided. The presence of graphene oxide nanostructured materials in composite material enhanced the overall performance in their respective applications. Finally, the review provides insight into future perspectives and improvements especially the scaling up of graphene oxide based nanocomposites based technology for industrial wastewater treatment.