Graphene oxide modulation of lignin-derived porous nanosheets for efficient desalination

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials derived from biomass have focused much attention due to their porous nanostructures and large specific surface area. This is more in line with the concept of sustainable development. Herein, the carbon nanosheets (GALC) derived from modulating lignin by graphene oxide (GO) are successfully assembled via simple confinement template action. The confined template effect of GO efficiently assembles lignin molecules into two-dimensional nanosheet structures. The interaction of oxygen-containing groups on the surface of GO with the NH2 groups of lignin makes the generated porous nanostructures more stable. The adsorption performance is further improved. The GALC shows the optimum electrochemical bilayer characteristics with a specific capacitance of 133 F·g−1. The desalination amount reaches 20.97 mg·g−1 with an average salt adsorption rate of 1.82 mg·g−1·min−1 during desalination process. The retention of desalination capacity is 90.18 %. This work strengthens the green chemistry implications of synthesizing porous carbon nanomaterials using biomass resource.