Progress in graphene-based materials as superior media for sensing, sorption, and separation of gaseous pollutants

Abstract

Rapid population growth accompanied by industrialization and urbanization has led to a noticeable degradation of air quality. There is a strong need to appraise novel materials for the treatment of diverse pollutants in the atmosphere. Among them, graphene oxide (GO) is envisaged as one of the most promising layered materials with expansive applicability in numerous fields, especially in the pollutant removal processes, due to many uniquely advantageous features (e.g., tunable physical properties, excellent thermal stability, electrical conductivity, exceptionally high surface area, and pore volume). In the last decade, researchers have also put much efforts to produce graphene-based composites through the fabrication of graphene or GO with a variety of materials such as carbon nanotubes, metallic nanoparticles, metal-organic framework, and polymers. Because of the advanced features (e.g., strong mechanical and anti-corrosive properties, stimuli responsive property, and high porosity) of graphene-based composites, they have been used preferably for air quality management (AQM) through adsorption, separation, and sensing of gaseous pollutants. In this comprehensive review, we offer a contemporary state of the art discussion on using graphene-based composites for AQM purposes. The nature of the interactions between composites and various types of gaseous pollutants has hence been reviewed in various respects. To expedite further research and development on this topic, we take into consideration the technical challenges with suggestions for the directions of relevant future research.