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Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering

ISSN 2095-0179

ISSN 2095-0187(Online)

CN 11-5981/TQ

Postal Subscription Code 80-969

2018 Impact Factor: 2.809

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Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.    2018, Vol. 12 Issue (3) : 390-399    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-018-1751-6
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Superhydrophobic, mechanically flexible and recyclable reduced graphene oxide wrapped sponge for highly efficient oil/water separation
Lijuan Qiu1,2, Ruiyang Zhang2, Ying Zhang2, Chengjin Li2, Qian Zhang2, Ying Zhou1,2()
1. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
2. The Center of New Energy Materials and Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
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Abstract

Water pollution has become an urgent issue for our modern society, and it is highly desirable to rapidly deal with the water pollution without secondary pollution. In this paper, we have prepared a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) wrapped sponge with superhydrophobicity and mechanically flexibility via a facile low-temperature thermal treatment method under a reducing atmosphere. The skeleton of this sponge is completely covered with RGO layers which are closely linked to the skeleton. This sponge has an abundant pore structure, high selectivity, good recyclability, low cost, and outstanding adsorption capacity for floating oil or heavy oil underwater. In addition, this sponge can maintain excellent adsorption performance for various oils and organic solvents over 50 cycles by squeezing, and exhibits extremely high separation efficiencies, up to 6 × 106 and 3.6 × 106 L·m−3·h−1 in non-turbulent and turbulent water/oil systems, respectively. This superhydrophobic adsorbent with attractive properties may find various applications, especially in large-scale removal of organic contaminants and oil spill cleanup.
Keywords superhydrophobicity      mechanically flexibility      water/oil separation      reduced graphene oxide wrapped sponge     
Corresponding Author(s): Ying Zhou   
Just Accepted Date: 13 June 2018   Online First Date: 06 September 2018    Issue Date: 18 September 2018
 Cite this article:   
Lijuan Qiu,Ruiyang Zhang,Ying Zhang, et al. Superhydrophobic, mechanically flexible and recyclable reduced graphene oxide wrapped sponge for highly efficient oil/water separation[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2018, 12(3): 390-399.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-018-1751-6
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2018/V12/I3/390
Fig.1  Scheme 1 Schematic illustration of the fabrication process of RGO-MS
Fig.2  The mechanical strength of RGO-MS was measured at (a) 300°C and (b)≤250°C; (c) the water contact angle of RGO-MS was obtained at 250°C and 200°C
Fig.3  (a) XRD patterns and (b) Raman spectra of MS, GO-MS and RGO-MS
Fig.4  (a) FT-IR spectra of MS, GO-MS and RGO-MS; (b) the C1s, (c) the O1s and (d) the N1s of XPS spectra of GO-MS and RGO-MS.
Fig.5  SEM images of (a), (b) MS and (c), (d) RGO-MS (inset is the photographs of the corresponding sponges)
Fig.6  (a,b) Mechanical compression stress-strain curves of selected cycles on RGO-MS during repeated compressions. The insets in (a) show the process of compression text and (b) show the images of the water drops on RGO-MS before compress and after 100 squeezing cycles
Fig.7  (a) The adsorption capacity of RGO-MS for oil and organic solvents, and (b) the cycles of the adsorption-squeezing process
Fig.8  (a) Optical images of water and pump oil droplets on RGO-MS, (b) photographs of RGO-MS immersed in water with an outside force and freely, (c) the process of the sliding angle of RGO-MS, (d) selective adsorption of RGO-MS for floating oil (pump oil), and (e) selective adsorption of RGO-MS for oil (phenixin) under water.
Adsorbents Qwt /(g·g?1) Contact angle/° Adsorption ratea)/(L·h?1) Cycle times Ref.
RGO-MS 80-161 153 24 >50 This work
RGO 100-280 135 <6 5 [15]
PEI/RGO-polyurethane 6.9-8.8 95.82 / 30 [33]
RGO 58-129 123.2 4.5 10 [41]
GO-CNT 21-35 147.6±2 6 8 [45]
PDMS-graphene 2-8 126.6 9 5 [46]
Nanodiamond- polyurethane 3-60 150±2 / 10 [47]
RGO-MS 57-112 154 / 20 [48]
Spongy graphene aerogels 29-54 152 / 100 [49]
Tab.1  Comparison of RGO-MS with various adsorbents in adsorption capacity
Fig.9  Photographs showing the progress of the continuous adsorption: (a) non-turbulent water-oil mixture, (b) turbulent water-oil mixture (red liquid is hexane, colorless liquid is water), and (c) gravity-driven separation of water (dyed with methylene blue) and heavy oil (phenixin dyed with oil red) by RGO-MS as a separation membrane
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