Graphene Derivatives Synthesis through an Arc-Driven Process for Sustainable Agricultural Waste Management and Their Applications

Agricultural waste and its sustainable management are significant concerns and require critical technology that promotes a circular economy. Traditional methods for carbonizing solid waste are cumbersome and require a large-scale operation to achieve sustainability. This research explores graphene formation from agricultural waste in a few seconds of reaction time. Arc-driven resistive heating (RH) achieves an instantaneous high temperature, causing thermal restructuring to create turbostratic graphene named Arc-driven Graphene (ADG). Due to instantaneous RH, massive pyrolysis starts, producing graphene derivatives under repeated RH-induced restructuring. The fabricated samples for rice straw showed a Tmax of 680 °C in TGA, an interplanar spacing of ∼0.34 nm in TEM, and an ID/IG ratio of 0.44, suggesting the formation of graphene derivatives. This conductive ADG powder is further used to fabricate a porous membrane surface as an interfacial evaporator. These surfaces show a high evaporation rate of ∼1.5 kg m–2 h–1 under one sun radiation. This process will help achieve sustainable development goal (SDG) nos. 9, 11, 12, and 13 by providing a solid waste management strategy and producing clean water. The synthesized ADG has diverse energy, biomedical, and environmental applications. The present work has demonstrated a pathway for sustainable agricultural biomass waste management by forming value-added products via a chemical-free process.