Starch Nanoparticles–Graphene Aerogels with High Supercapacitor Performance and Efficient Adsorption

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