A novel graphene aerogel synthesized from cellulose with high performance for removing MB in water

Abstract A novel graphene aerogel has been synthesized from cellulose by an easy way through sol-gel reaction and carbonization. In this route, it can be found the products have a high yield about 48% and form a specific porous networks assembled by graphene flake. The product sample like CGA-2, characteristic of a specific area about 1426.11 m2/g and total pore volume about 1.02 cm3/g, exhibits a remarkable performance for removing cationic dye like methylene blue (MB) in water. Of which the maximal MB adsorption capacity can be found about 610.85 mg/g in a neutral solution and 1.2 g/g in a basic solution. Under the condition of initial MB concentration of 100 mg/L and pH of 7.0, the adsorption equilibrium can be achieved on CGA-2 in 10 min, with MB removal ratio about 99%. In the MB adsorption on CGA-2, the isotherm fits Langmuir model with correlation coefficient of 0.9905, and the kinetics follows pseudo-second-order model with correlation coefficient of 0.9999.