Abstract
Several crucial problems, such as rapid population growth and extended demands for food, water and fuels, could lead to a severe lack of clean water and an energy crisis in the coming decade. Therefore, low-cost and highly-efficient technologies related to filtration of alternative water supplies (e.g., purification of wastewater and water-rich liquids) and advanced energy storage (e.g., supercapacitors) could play a crucial role to overcome such challenges. A promising class of solid materials for these purposes is exfoliated graphene, and more specifically, its nanoporous forms that exhibit large specific surface areas and pore volumes. In the current work, two plasma-exfoliated graphene-based materials with distinctive morphological and porosity features, including non-porous and low-specific surface area platelets versus nanoporous and high-specific surface area flakes, were tested as filters for water purification purposes (i.e., decolourization and deacidification) and as electrodes for supercapacitors (i.e., ion electrosorption). The findings of this study suggest that a nanoporous and large specific surface area graphene-based material promotes the water purification behaviour by removing contaminants from water-based solutions as well as the energy storage performance by confining ions of aqueous electrolytes.
Highlights
Exfoliated graphene, a two-dimensional single-layer of sp2 -bonded carbon atoms distributed in hexagonal cells, has been the subject of considerable research since the beginning of the 21st century due to its unique electronic, thermal, optical and mechanical properties [1,2]
The working electrode (WE) had a diameter of 6 mm and a thickness of 300 ± 20 μm and an aqueous 1 M caesium chloride (CsCl) solution was used as the electrolyte
Work, two two graphene-based graphene-based materials materials which which differ differ in in terms terms of of morphology morphology and and pore pore structure have been examined for their water purification and electrochemical energy storage structure have been examined for their water purification and electrochemical energy storage performance
Summary
Exfoliated graphene, a two-dimensional single-layer of sp2 -bonded carbon atoms distributed in hexagonal cells, has been the subject of considerable research since the beginning of the 21st century due to its unique electronic, thermal, optical and mechanical properties [1,2]. The plasma-induced exfoliation of natural graphite can be considered an as efficient, not solution-based, catalyst-free, cost-effective and environmental-benign approach to produce FLG materials of high-purity in bulk quantities. Using this method, the generated plasma modifies the graphitic surface either by physical ablation or chemical functionalization, allowing the production of graphene-based materials with different porosities (ranging from non-porous to highly nanoporous) and surface chemistries (e.g., functional groups, dopants, etc.) [11,12]. The WE had a diameter of 6 mm and a thickness of 300 ± 20 μm and an aqueous 1 M caesium chloride (CsCl) solution was used as the electrolyte
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