Highly hydrophobic F-rGO@wood sponge for efficient clean-up of viscous crude oil

作者：Huang, Wei; Zhang, Lin; Lai, Xuejun; Li, Hongqiang^*; Zeng, Xingrong^*

来源：Chemical Engineering Journal, 2020, 386: 123994.

DOI：10.1016/j.cej.2019.123994

• Reduced graphene oxide
• Wood sponge
• Hydrophobic
• Electrothermal capability
• Crude oil
• Clean-up

With the increasing occurrences of industrial oily wastewater emissions and crude oil spills, the deteriorated global environment and ecosystems have attracted a great deal of attention worldwide. Herein we report a highly hydrophobic balsa wood sponge wrapped with fluoroalkyl silane modified reduced graphene oxide (FrGO@WS) for efficient clean-up of all kinds of oils including viscous crude oil from water. The F-rGO@WS possessed excellent water repellency with a water contact angle of 145 degrees. Owing to high hydrophobicity and longitudinal channels, the F-rGO@WS was successfully applied for separating oil-water mixtures, and the separation efficiency reached 99.0%. Furthermore, the F-rGO@WS also possessed quick electrothermal capability and could be utilized as a filter to efficiently separate viscous crude oil from water by means of the generated Joule heat under a low voltage, and the separation rate was about 10 times higher than that without voltage. Our findings stand out a new tool to fabricate functional natural materials and exhibit great potential in practical applications such as water pollution control and clean-up of viscous crude oil.