Facile and large-scale synthesis of polymorphic graphdiyne catalyzed by transition metal salts for organic pollutant removal

Abstract

Organic pollutants widely exist in the environment, causing a lot of potential harm. On account of excellent physical and chemical properties, graphdiyne (GDY) has been widely used in many potential fields. However, it is crucial to develop more synthetic methods to achieve mass production of GDY and explore its universality in the removal of organic pollutants. Herein, six transition metal salts including Cu salts and Pd salts were selected as catalysts to successfully synthesize GDY with different morphologies by a coupling reaction. The method is simple, safe, easy to operate and suitable for large-scale production. Among them, CuSO₄-catalyzed GDY has higher yield (>90%), lower density and fewer defects. Furthermore, it can efficiently remove organic pollutants from water such as dyes, tetracycline antibiotics and neonicotinoid pesticides, demonstrating that the adsorption material has a certain universality. In particular, the adsorption effect of GDY on dye is comparable to that of MWCNTs and stronger than that of conventional adsorbents such as graphene and activated carbon. This work provides more possibilities for the industrial production of GDY and its promising application for the removal of organic pollutants.