Marine shells not only represent a rapidly accumulating type of fishery
wastes but also offer a unique sort of hybrid nanomaterials produced
greenly and massively in nature. The elaborate “brick and mortar”
structures of nacre enabled the synthesis of carbon nanomeshes with
<1 nm thickness, hierarchical porosity, and high specific surface
area through pyrolysis, in which two-dimensional (2D) organic layers
served as the carbonaceous precursor and aragonite platelets as the hard
template. Mineral bridges within 2D organic layers templated the
formation of mesh pores of 20–70 nm. In contrast to other hydrophobic
carbon nanomaterials, these carbon nanomeshes showed super
dispersibility in diverse solvents and thus processability for membranes
through filtration, patterning, spray-coating, and ink-writing. The
carbon membranes with layered structures were capable of serving not
only for high-flux filtration and continuous flow absorption but also
for electrochemical and strain sensing with high sensitivity. Thus,
utilization of marine shells, on one hand, relieves the environmental
concern of shellfish waste, on the other hand, offers a facile, green,
low-cost, and massive approach to synthesize unique carbon nanomeshes
alternative to graphene nanomeshes and applicable in environmental
adsorption, filtration, wearable sensors, and flexible microelectronics.