Abstract
The adoption of green technology is very important to protect the environment and thus there is a need for improving the existing methods for the fabrication of carbon materials. As such, this work proposes to discuss, interrogate, and propose viable hydrothermal, solvothermal, and other advanced carbon materials synthesis methods. The synthesis approaches for advanced carbon materials to be interrogated will include the synthesis of carbon dots, carbon nanotubes, nitrogen/titania-doped carbons, graphene quantum dots, and their nanocomposites with solid/polymeric/metal oxide supports. This will be performed with a particular focus on microwave-assisted solvothermal and hydrothermal synthesis due to their favourable properties such as rapidity, low cost, and being green/environmentally friendly. These methods are regarded as important for the current and future synthesis and modification of advanced carbon materials for application in energy, gas separation, sensing, and water treatment. Simultaneously, the work will take cognisance of methods reducing the fabrication costs and environmental impact while enhancing the properties as a direct result of the synthesis methods. As a direct result, the expectation is to impart a significant contribution to the scientific body of work regarding the improvement of the said fabrication methods.
Highlights
Carbon materials are extremely versatile in terms of their applications, and as such, there is a growing global demand for these materials
Significant improvements were made to comprehend the physicochemical features of hydrothermal processes, leading to the invention of the solvothermal synthesis method where organic compounds were used as solvents towards the preparation of well-controlled nanoscale materials [28]
Due to these superior advantages, including low process temperatures, reaction productivity in liquid media, low-energy consumption, and being environmentally friendly, the hydrothermal/solvothermal processes has been made in the twenty-first century in developing nanomaterials with the control of physicochemical properties such as crystallinity, crystal phase, morphology, and size [10,28]
Summary
Carbon materials are extremely versatile in terms of their applications, and as such, there is a growing global demand for these materials This demand, in turn, necessitates the development of rapid, cost-effective, scalable, and safe synthesis methods. These synthesis methods include electric arc-discharge, ionothermal, pulse laser ablation, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), and the pyrolysis of organic compounds/solvents, among other approaches [1,2,3,4]. These methods are known to be energy intensive, they require harsh conditions and chemicals, and they are quite expensive to carry out [5]. To achieve sustainable carbon materials with enhanced properties for wide applicability, approaches such as sol–gel, hydrothermal, and solvothermal syntheses which with several modifications and changes have shown great promise over the recent past [7]
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