Graphene Hydrogels Offer Efficient Water Purification Solution

A team of researchers at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) led by Professor Aravind Vijayaraghavan have developed 3D particles made of graphene that have a range of shapes and are exceptionally efficient in removing contaminants from water.

Graphene hydrogels, which occur when water mixes with porous 3D assemblies of liquid-crystal graphene oxide (GO), known as aerogels, effectively extract heavy metal ions and positively or negatively charged contaminants. This process is possible by tuning the surface chemistry of the graphene flakes in the particles, according to Kaiwen Nie, a PhD student at the NGI and co-author of the paper.

Researchers have accurately controlled the particle morphology using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), another liquid crustal material. Adding droplets of GO into the CTAB solutions produced particles shaped like a sphere, donut, and other intermediate shapes resembling jellyfish.

“We have developed a universal phase diagram for the formation of these shapes, based on four dimensionless numbers – the weber, Reynolds, Onhesorge and Weber numbers, representing the inertial, viscous, surface tension and electrostatic forces respectively. This can be used to accurately control the particle morphology by varying the formation parameters,” said Dr. Yizhen Shao, lead author of this paper.

Read the full article here to learn more about graphene hydrogels and their significance in water purification.

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