Preparation of graphene-MoS₂ hybrid aerogels as multifunctional sorbents for water remediation

The increasing demand of clean water and effective way to recycle industrial wastewater has offered a new application for carbon-based three-dimensional (3D) porous networks as sorbents due to their superior sorption abilities. Through the surface modification and hybridization with functional materials, the physical and chemical properties of the 3D carbon-based materials can be engineered. In this work, graphene-MoS₂ aerogels (GMAs) with bulky shape are synthesized via a one-pot hydrothermal method. The obtained GMAs show quick sorption rate and high sorption capacity towards a wide variety of contaminants. The sorption covers not only organic solvents or organic dyes, but also toxic heavy metals ions such as Hg²⁺ and Pb²⁺. More importantly, the sorption capacity towards metal ions can be optimized by simply changing the loading amount of MoS₂.