From Biomass Waste to Multifunctional Biochar: Tailored Preparation and Emerging Applications in Energy, Environment, and Sensing

Biochar is a porous carbonaceous material synthesized through the pyrolysis of diverse biomass resources, including agricultural and forestry residues as well as livestock manure. It possesses superior characteristics such as a large specific surface area, adjustable pore architecture, abundant surface functional groups, and favorable electrical conductivity. With the increasingly severe global energy shortage and environmental pollution problems in recent years, biochar has emerged as a green, low-cost functional material with distinct application superiority in multiple key research directions, including energy storage and conversion, chemical catalysis, environmental restoration, and signal sensing and detection. This study comprehensively summarizes the latest research advances of biochar in the aforementioned application fields, focusing on innovative achievements in photocatalytic and electrocatalytic hydrogen generation, supercapacitors and electrochemical energy storage systems, persulfate activation technology, carbon dioxide capture, remediation of heavy metal and organic contaminants, volatile organic compound (VOC) adsorption, as well as electrochemical sensing devices. Existing research results demonstrate that modification strategies including metal and non-metal doping, surface oxidation treatment, and compounding with semiconductors or metal oxide materials can effectively improve the catalytic activity and functional performance of biochar. Furthermore, this paper prospects the future interdisciplinary development trends of biochar, analyzes the existing research gaps in mechanism exploration, structural optimization design, and industrial large-scale preparation, and provides theoretical and practical references for the further popularization and application of biochar in sustainable energy development and environmental governance fields.