Removal of Anthropogenic Toxic Gaseous Compounds from Indoor using Biomass-based Graphene Aerogels

Abstract

The efficient capture of HCHO, tobacco smoke, and anthropogenic toxic pollutants is of paramount importance to mitigate indoor air pollution and protect the general population. Ultralight N-doped graphene aerogel (N-GA) with a three-dimensional (3D) honeycomb-like coarse-pore structure is synthesized from biomass (pear). By taking advantage of the micrometer-sized honeycomb pores, 3D interconnected porous structure, hierarchical pores, large pore volume (0.81 cm3 g–1), highly accessible surface area (1582 m2 g–1), and heteroatom-enriched (1.89% of N and 9.88% of O) nature, the N-GA offered high adsorption of the toxic gaseous compounds (TGCs). The as-synthesized N-GA without any further chemical/physical treatment exhibits an excellent adsorption-based capture of TGCs such as HCHO (996.7 mg g–1), ethanol (611 mg g–1), tobacco smoke (523.8 mg g–1), benzene (482.3 mg g–1), toluene (392 mg g–1), and carbon dioxide (365.3 mg g–1). Moreover, N-GA, as a low-cost and renewable adsorbent, exhibits high recyclability and long-term adsorption efficiency. These results demonstrate the potential of N-GA as an unprecedented candidate to design high-performance adsorbents for TGCs, suggesting a great application potential in air filters to control both indoor and outdoor air pollution.