Pectin/graphene oxide aerogel with bamboo-like structure for enhanced dyes adsorption

Graphene aerogel (GA) with a porous structure has great potential in water treatments. However, due to the disordered structure and intrinsic hydrophobicity, the application of GA for dyes adsorption is limited. In this work, pectin/graphene oxide aerogels (PTGAs) with a bamboo-like structure were prepared by the Dual-template method. The ordered structure and abundant oxygen-containing groups brought by pectin endow PTGAs with efficient adsorption for dyes, reaching the max adsorption capacities (719 mg/g for rhodamine B (RhB) and 419 mg/g for MO) in 80 min. Moreover, the adsorption kinetics, adsorption thermodynamics and adsorption isotherms were systematically studied. The results revealed the spontaneous and exothermic behavior of the adsorption process. In addition, the PTGAs exhibited convenient recovery and stable cyclic adsorption performance. PTGAs will open a new field for efficient water treatment due to the excellent performances of high adsorption capacity, convenient recovery, and reusable adsorption.