Starch Nanoparticles–Graphene Aerogels with\nHigh Supercapacitor Performance and Efficient Adsorption

Abstract

In\nthis work, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets are combined with\ndialdehyde starch nanocrystals (DASNCs) to form highly porous, mechanically\nrobust, compressible aerogels, which can be used as supercapacitor electrodes and\nefficient adsorbents. The introduction of the DASNC to GO was confirmed\nby SEM, TEM, FTIR, Raman, XPS, and TGA. After DASNCs attached to the\nreduced graphene (RGO), the aerogel skeleton became more robust, resulting\nin high mechanical properties. DASNC can effectively prevent irreversible\nself-stacking between graphene nanosheets; therefore, the electrochemical\nperformance of reduced graphene oxide was fully realized, and the\nspecific capacitance was increase from 198 to 316 F g^–1. The hybrid aerogels were also used to remove four dye contaminants.\nResults showed that DASNCs-RGO hybrid aerogels (SRGO) had high adsorption\ncapacities toward rhodamine B (RB) and crystal violet (CV) due to\nthe highly porous structure and high specific surface. The highest\nadsorption capacities toward RB and CV of SRGO were 539\nmg g^–1 and 318 mg g^–1. The results\nof adsorption kinetics showed that there was chemisorption mechanism\ninteraction between the hybrid aerogels and dye contaminants during\nthe adsorption process.