Brianyoungite/Graphene Oxide Coordination Composites for High-Performance Cu²⁺ Adsorption and Tunable Deep-Red Photoluminescence

Graphene oxide (GO) is a good adsorbent for heavy-metal ions because the oxygen functional groups offer active adsorption sites, but a small-size GO with dense oxygen-containing groups has high water solubility causing difficulty in separation. Herein, GO is bound to large brianyoungite (BY) by Zn-O coordination via a hydrothermal reaction that produces BY-GO composites with hollow spherical and flakelike morphologies that are easy to remove. By producing abundant oxygen-containing groups on GO, the Cu(2+) adsorption capacity increases to 1724.1 mg/g, which is the highest value in graphene-related materials. The experimental and theoretical analysis clearly shows that the infrared spectral shifts toward the low-frequency side of C-O-H and O═C-O bending vibrations in the BY-GO composites stem from the Zn(2+) (or Cu(2+)) coordination with O atoms in GO. The BY-GO also exhibits tunable deep-red photoluminescence up to 750 nm with a quantum yield of about 1%, which may be useful in infrared optoelectronic devices and solar energy exploitation. The photoluminescence which is different from that previously reported from chemically derived GO can be attributed to the optical transition in the disorder-induced localized states of the carbon-oxygen functional groups.