Abstract
The use of two-dimensional graphene-based materials in water treatment has recently gained significant attention due to their unique electronic and thermal mobility, high surface area, high mechanical strength, excellent corrosion resistance and tunable surface chemistry. However, the relatively expensive, poor hydrophobicity, low adsorption capacity and recyclability, and complex post-treatment of the most pristine graphene frameworks limit their practical application. Here, we report a facile scalable method to produce highly porous graphene from reduced graphene oxide via thermal treatment without addition of any catalyst or use of any template. Comparing to conventional graphene counterparts, as-prepared porous graphene nanosheets showed evident improvement in hydrophobicity, adsorption capacity, and recyclability, making them ideal candidate materials for water treatment. Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic porous graphene prepared in this work has been demonstrated as effective absorbents for a broad range of ions, oils and organic solvents, exhibiting high selectivity, good recyclability, and excellent absorption capacities > 90%. The synthesis method of porous graphene reported in this paper is easy to implement, low cost and scalable. These attributes could contribute towards efficient and cost-effective water purification and pollution reduction.
Highlights
Heavy metals, organic solvents, toxic organic dyes, organic chlorine compounds and solvent oils are primary pollutants of water resources[1]
We present a facile cost-effective production route for this novel superhydrophobic porous graphene (PG) based on thermal treatment of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), so as to unlock the current main bottlenecks in its commercial application
The temperature range involved in this treatment process was (190–200 °C), which was lower than that previously reported for the synthesis of porous rGO (800 °C30)
Summary
Organic solvents, toxic organic dyes, organic chlorine compounds and solvent oils are primary pollutants of water resources[1]. Adsorption method is the best suited for studying the accumulation of ions, oils and organic dyes in porous networks Various materials such as carbon nanotubes, activated carbon, clays[13,14,15], plant wastes[16], and agricultural byproducts[17,18] have been extensively explored as adsorbents to remove the pollutants mentioned above from water, but they all suffer from poor adsorption selectivity, low yield, slow adsorption kinetics, and poor recyclability and regeneration. PG comprises few-layered planar graphene sheets with a unique combination of high surface area, super hydrophobicity, uniform porous architecture, optical transparency, high oxidation resistance and chemical stability[32,33] Such planar porous nanostructures provide an easy access for ions, facilitating faster adsorption and desorption of contaminants, and subsequently improve both adsorption rate and adsorption capacity, making them highly effective adsorbents of metal ions[34] as well as dissolved organic pollutants[35]. PG was revealed to be highly effective for water decontamination, with superior adsorption capacity, kinetics, recovery, regeneration and recyclability
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