Carbon Aerogel from Winter Melon for Highly Efficient and Recyclable Oils and Organic Solvents Absorption

Abstract

Direct conversion of biomass to carbon aerogel provides a promising approach to developing absorbent materials for spilled oils and organic solvents recovery. In this work, three-dimensional carbon aerogels were fabricated via a hydrothermal and post-pyrolysis process using winter melon as the only raw materials. The winter melon carbon aerogel (WCA) prepared shows a low density of 0.048 g/cm 3 , excellent hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 135°, and selective absorption for organic solvents and oils. The absorption capacity of WCA for organic solvents and oils can be 16−50 times its own weight. Moreover, distillation can be employed to recover WCA and harvest the pollutants. Over five absorption−harvesting cycles, the absorption capacity of WCA to organic solvents and low boiling point oils can recover almost 100% of its starting capacity. With a combination of low-cost biomass as raw materials, green preparation process, low density, and excellent hydrophobicity, WCA as an absorber has great potential in application of spilled oil recovery and environmental protection.

Recent Development of Advanced Materials with Special Wettability for Selective Oil/Water Separation

“…More recently, research interests have been drawn to converting natural biomass materials and even waste carbonaceous materials into hydrophobic carbon aerogel absorbents. [118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125] For example, our group has demonstrated the preparation of twisted carbon fi ber (TCF) aerogels through the direct pyrolysis of raw cotton. [ 124 ] The fi brous structure of cotton could be maintained after the pyrolysis, but the resulting carbon fi bers became more twisted ( Figure 7 a-c).…”

Lightweight and Highly Conductive Aerogel-like Carbon from Sugarcane with Superior Mechanical and EMI Shielding Properties

“…1 Recently, ALC prepared from water melon, winter melon, and pumpkin by HTC and a postpyrolysis process have been reported by our group, which show great potential in energy conversion and storage, as well as water treatment. 16,17 Unfortunately, although the ALC obtained have low density and high porosity, their specific surface area is quite low (generally less than 10 m 2 g −1 ). In addition, the mechanical property of those ALCs is poor, which tend to break under compression.…”

Polythiophene functionalized hydrophobic cellulose kitchen wipe sponge and cellulose fabric for effective oil–water separation

“…The PT-CF fabric shows superhydrophobic behavior with the water contact angle around 151. 6 and the PT-CS have the water contact angle around 126.6 . The PT-CS sponge acts as good oil absorbent and the PT-CF fabric acts as a good lter to separate oil and water.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] The consequences of the most infamous Gulf of Mexico oil spill accident have been huge on the aquatic ora and fauna which are noticeable even now aer seven years. 6 The infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill which occurred in 1989 released 11 million gallons of oil into the water. As the crude oil is buried just inches below the surface the beaches remain polluted till today.…”

“…The modied fabric exhibits a water contact angle around 151. 6 making it an ultrahydrophobic material as shown in Fig. 3d.…”