Contemporary Progress on Graphene/Graphene Derivatives-Based Adsorbents and Photocatalysts for the Eradication of Organic Toxins: An Updated Overview

Organic pollutants have an antagonistic impact on the ecosystem and human health, as these pollutants and their exposure lead to many health effects, including cancer, immune deficiency disorders, genotoxicity, neurological disorders, etc. Among the several techniques, the eviction of organic toxins via sorption or photocatalysis utilizing graphene or its derivatives such as graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and graphene aerogel are one of the most enthralling aspects of the current research on account of their huge surface active area, sterling mechanical strength, intriguing physicochemical properties, ability to attain π–π stacking, and meso-porosity within the layer structures, which facilitate the sorption of noxious pollutants as well as potent photocatalysts to degrade organic hazardous pollutants. Furthermore, the inclusion of a large degree of oxygen-derived functional groups sequentially improves their pollutant degradation rates due to increased hydrophilicity, thus increasing the degree of molecular interactions. Therefore, this review ruminates on a summary of graphene and its derivative-based platforms for eradicating organic pollutants, their synthesis procedures, modus operandi, and modifications employed to boost selectivity and efficiency, along with their current status and future aspects.