High-Yield Production of Lignin-Derived Functional Carbon Nanosheet for Dye Adsorption
Fenggui Chen, Xi Hu, Xiaohan Tu, Linfei Chen, Xi Liu, Linli Tan, Yulin Mao, Jianwei Shi, Xiaoxu Teng, Shuhua He, Zonghui Qin, Jianhua Xu, Jian Wu
Abstract
In this article, we report the preparation of lignin-derived carbon nanosheet (L-CNS) by direct thermal treatment of lignin without activation operation and the functions of the L-CNS as an adsorbent for rhodamine dye. The L-CNSs are fabricated by freeze-drying (FD) methods of lignin followed by high-temperature carbonization. It is found that lower frozen temperature in FD or lower concentration of lignin aqueous solution renders L-CNSs' more porous morphology and higher specific surface area (SSA), allowing a promising application of the L-CNSs as an efficient adsorbent for organic pollutants. In particular, the alkaline hydroxide catalyst helps to increase the SSA of carbon products, leading to a further improved adsorption capacity. On the other hand, p-toluenesulfonic acid (TsOH) catalyzed pyrolysis, which dramatically increased the L-CNS product yield, and provided a high-yield approach for the production of pollutant absorbent.