Gorgolis G, Kotsidi M, Paterakis G, Koutroumanis N, Tsakonas C, Galiotis C
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26504, Patras, Greece.
Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH/ ICE-HT), Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, 26504, Patras, Greece.
Sci Rep. 2024 Apr 5;14(1):8029. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58651-1.
Environmental accidents highlight the need for the development of efficient materials that can be employed to eliminate pollutants including crude oil and its derivatives, as well as toxic organic solvents. In recent years, a wide variety of advanced materials has been investigated to assist in the purification process of environmentally compromised regions, with the principal contestants being graphene-based structures. This study describes the synthesis of graphene aerogels with two methods and determines their efficiency as adsorbents of several water pollutants. The main difference between the two synthesis routes is the use of freeze-drying in the first case, and ambient pressure drying in the latter. Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurements are employed here for the characterisation of the samples. The as-prepared aerogels have been found to act as photocatalysts of aqueous dye solutions like methylene blue and Orange G, while they were also evaluated as adsorbents of organic solvents (acetone, ethanol and methanol), and, oils like pump oil, castor oil, silicone oil, as well. The results presented here show that the freeze-drying approach provides materials with better adsorption efficiency for the most of the examined pollutants, however, the energy and cost-saving advantages of ambient-pressure-drying could offset the adsorption advantages of the former case.
环境事故凸显了开发高效材料的必要性，这些材料可用于清除包括原油及其衍生物以及有毒有机溶剂在内的污染物。近年来，人们研究了各种各样的先进材料，以协助受环境影响地区的净化过程，主要的竞争者是基于石墨烯的结构。本研究描述了用两种方法合成石墨烯气凝胶，并确定了它们作为几种水污染物吸附剂的效率。两种合成路线的主要区别在于，第一种方法使用冷冻干燥，第二种方法使用常压干燥。这里采用拉曼光谱、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、X射线衍射（XRD）、X射线光电子能谱（XPS）和接触角测量来表征样品。已发现所制备的气凝胶可作为亚甲基蓝和橙G等水性染料溶液的光催化剂，同时还评估了它们作为有机溶剂（丙酮、乙醇和甲醇）以及泵油、蓖麻油、硅油等油类吸附剂的性能。这里给出的结果表明，冷冻干燥方法为大多数被检测污染物提供了具有更好吸附效率的材料，然而，常压干燥在能源和成本节约方面的优势可能会抵消前者在吸附方面的优势。
