Hydrolysis time-controlled pore and defect engineering in nanocellulose-derived biochar for enhanced ethylene glycol sensing

This study presents a hydrolysis time-mediated strategy for engineering the pore and defect structure of biochar derived from lavender straw nanocellulose. The biochar obtained at the optimal hydrolysis duration of 3 h (CLN-3) exhibits a developed mesoporous network (46.36 m 2  g −1 ) and abundant oxygen vacancies, leading to exceptional ethylene glycol (EG) sensing performance at room temperature: a high response of 17,576.67%, a low detection limit of 0.36 ppm, and stable operation over 40 days. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that calcium doping enhances the adsorption energy of EG from − 0.13674 eV to − 0.39508 eV, facilitating interfacial charge transfer. This work provides a green and controllable route to transform agricultural waste into high-performance sensing materials. Graphical The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.