Sugar Cane-Converted Graphene-like Material for the Superhigh Adsorption of Organic Pollutants from Water via Coassembly Mechanisms

A sugar cane-converted graphene-like material (FZS900) was fabricated by carbonization and activation. The material exhibited abundant micropores, water-stable turbostratic single-layer graphene nanosheets, and a high BET-N-2 surface area (2280 m(2) g(-1)). The adsorption capacities of FZS900 toward naphthalene, phenanthrene, and 1-naphthol were 615.8, 431.2, and 2040 mg respectively, which are much higher than those of previously reported materials. The nonpolar aromatic molecules induced the turbostratic graphene nanosheets to agglomerate in an orderly manner, forming 2-11 graphene layer nanoloops, while polar aromatic compounds induced high dispersion or aggregation of the graphene nanosheets. This phase conversion of the nanosized materials after sorption occurred through coassembly of the aromatic molecules and the single-layer graphene nanosheets via large-area pi-pi interactions. An adsorption-induced partition mechanism was further proposed to explain the nanosize effect and nanoscale sorption sites observed. This study indicates that commonly available biomass can be converted to graphene-like material with superhigh sorption ability in order to remove pollutants from the environment via nanosize effects and a coassembly mechanism.