Recent advances in wood-derived monolithic carbon materials: Synthesis approaches, modification methods and environmental applications

Wood-derived monolithic carbon materials have gained great interest and attention owing to their unique porous structure, abundant longitudinally aligned microchannels, excellent electrical conductivity, good chemical and mechanical stability, and tunable multifunctionality. In recent years, there has been a fast proliferation of research regarding wood-derived monolithic carbon materials for environmental applications with tremendous progress achieved. The versatile environmental applications include catalysis, solar evaporation, adsorption, capacitive deionization, microbial fuel cell and electric field disinfection. This review is intended to summarize such progress and highlight the key achievements. The various synthesis approaches and modification methods of wood-derived monolithic carbon materials are also presented. Lastly, the challenges and future prospect of wood-derived monolithic carbon materials in environmental applications are discussed. This review will provide a deeper understanding of wood-derived monolithic carbon materials for environmental applications and provide inspirations to fabricate advanced wood-based carbon materials.