Adsorption of soluble oil from water to graphene

Review on synthesis of three-dimensional graphene skeletons and their absorption performance for oily wastewater

Water pollution is a global environmental problem that affects the ecosystem severely. Treatment of oily wastewater and organic pollutants is a major challenge that waits to be solved as soon as possible. Adsorbing is one of the most effective strategies to deal with this problem. Three-dimensional (3D) porous adsorbents made of graphene or graphene-based nanomaterials skeletons had attracted more attention in wastewater treatment because of their large surface area, high porosity, low density, high chemical/thermal stability, and steady mechanical properties, which allow different pollutants to easily access and diffuse into 3D networks of adsorbents. This work presents an extensive summarization of recent progress in the synthesis methodologies and microstructures of 3D graphene foams and 3D graphene-based foams and highlights their adsorption performance for oils and organic solvents. Advantages and disadvantages of various preparation strategies are compared and the corresponded structures of these skeletons are studied in detail. Furthermore, the effects of the structures on oil-adsorption properties are analyzed and some data and parameters of the oil-adsorption properties are listed and studied for easier comparison. At last, the future research directions and technical challenges are prospected, which is hoped that the researchers will be inspired to develop the new graphene-based adsorbents.

Screening and validation of new diagnostic ratios of dibenzothiophenes and fluorenes for identification of seriously weathered oil spills

Fingerprinting technique is a universal method for tracing oil spill. It is usually achieved by means of diagnostic ratios (DRs) of biomarkers. In the process of severely weathering, the important components usually change greatly and the relevant diagnostic ratios may also change. Therefore, it is more difficult to trace severely weathered oil to its source. On 22 November 2013, the huge explosion of Sinopec pipeline occurred in Qingdao, China. The beaches near the explosion site were contaminated and damaged by oil spills. After the explosion, an actual weathering experiment was carried out on an oil-polluted beach. The original and weathered spilled oil samples have been collected from this site. Synchronized with actual coastal weathering, a 360-day Lab simulated weathering experiment was carried out using the sampled original oil spill samples. According to data analysis techniques including similarity, t-test method and repeatability limit analysis, 27 new diagnostic ratios of dibenzothiophenes and fluorenes in the weathered oil samples were selected and verified. 6 of them maintained good stability during both of the simulated and actual weathering process. It is recommended that these stable DRs be used for tracing the source of severely weathered oil spills to promote the efficiency and accuracy.

Pillared graphene oxide composite as an adsorbent of soluble hydrocarbons in water: pH and organic matter effects

Graphene oxide (GO) is a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon with oxygen-containing functional groups decorating its basal plane and edge sites. Most of its high surface area can be lost due to restacking of individual layers during the synthesis and drying of GO-based bulk sorbents. There is great interest to increase the specific surface area of graphene-based sorbents by introducing organic molecules as "pillaring agents" between GO sheets to hinder the stacking process and create sorbents with elevated surface area. This work synthesizes pillared GO by introducing chitosan (CS), a linear polysaccharide with various molecular weights. A composite of low molecular weight CS at a CS/GO ratio of 0.1 is shown to have the highest specific surface area (up to 70.5 m²/g) in comparison to the medium and high CS molecular weight, pristine GO, and the CS/GO composite materials. The affinity of the optimized GO/CS composites towards benzene, toluene, and naphthalene was evaluated at 19.3 mg/L of organic matter content while altering pH. Sips and Langmuir adsorption isotherm models well described the adsorption behavior, and benzene adsorption performance was reduced at low pH. Related to the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in solution, lower diffusivity constants (k₁) in hydrocarbon systems were recorded. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of CS as a potential pillaring agent in CS/GO composites to increase specific surface area and enhance the capture of soluble hydrocarbons from aqueous solutions.

Adsorption and regeneration of expanded graphite modified by CTAB-KBr/H3PO4 for marine oil pollution

The cleaning-up of viscous oil spilled in ocean is a global challenge, especially in Bohai, due to its slow current movement and poor self-purification capacity. Frequent oil-spill accidents not only cause severe and long-term damages to marine ecosystems, but also lead to a great loss of valuable resources. To eliminate the environmental pollution of oil spills, an efficient and environment-friendly oil-recovery approach is necessary. In this study,¹expanded graphite (EG) modified by CTAB-KBr/H₃PO₄ was synthesized via composite intercalation agents of CTAB-KBr and natural flake graphite, followed by the activation of phosphoric acid at low temperature. The resultant modified expanded graphite (M-EG) obtained an interconnected and continuous open microstructure with lower polarity surface, more and larger pores, and increased surface hydrophobicity. Due to these characteristics, M-EG exhibited a superior adsorption capacity towards marine oil. The saturated adsorption capacities of M-EG were as large as 7.44  g/g for engine oil, 6.12 g/g for crude oil, 5.34 g/g for diesel oil and 4.10 g/g for gasoline oil in 120min, exceeding the capacity of pristine EG. Furthermore, M-EG maintained good removal efficiency under different adsorption conditions, such as temperature, oil types, and sodium salt concentration. In addition, oils sorbed into M-EG could be recovered either by a simple compression or filtration-drying treatment with a recovery ratio of 58-83%. However, filtration-drying treatment shows better performance in preserving microstructures of M-EG, which ensures the adsorbents can be recycled several times. High removal capability, fast adsorption efficiency, excellent stability and good recycling performance make M-EG an ideal candidate for treating marine oil pollution in practical application.

Insight on Structure of Water and Ice Next to Graphene Using Surface-Sensitive Spectroscopy

The water/graphene interface has received considerable attention in the past decade due to its relevance in various potential applications including energy storage, sensing, desalination, and catalysis. Most of our knowledge about the interfacial water structure next to graphene stems from simulations, which use experimentally measured water contact angles (WCAs) on graphene (or graphite) to estimate the water-graphene interaction strength. However, the existence of a wide spectrum of reported WCAs on supported graphene and graphitic surfaces makes it difficult to interpret the water-graphene interactions. Here, we have used surface-sensitive infrared-visible sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy to probe the interfacial water structure next to graphene supported on a sapphire substrate. In addition, the ice nucleation properties of graphene have been explored by performing in situ freezing experiments as graphitic surfaces are considered good ice nucleators. For graphene supported on sapphire, we observed a strong SFG peak associated with highly coordinated, ordered water next to graphene. Similar ordering was not detected next to bare sapphire, implying that the observed ordering of water molecules in the former case is a consequence of the presence of graphene. Our analysis indicates that graphene behaves like a hydrophobic (or negatively charged) surface, leading to enhanced ordering of water molecules. Although liquid water orders next to graphene, the ice formed is proton disordered. This research sheds light on water-graphene interactions relevant in optimizing the performance of graphene in various applications.

Soluble hydrocarbons uptake by porous carbonaceous adsorbents at different water ionic strength and temperature: something to consider in oil spills

Nowadays, petrochemical operations involve risks to the environment and one of the biggest is oil spills. Low molecular aromatics like benzene, toluene, and naphthalene dissolve in water, and because of their toxicological characteristics, these produce severe consequences to the environment. The oil spill cleanup strategies are mainly designed to deal with the heavy fractions accumulated on the water surface. Unfortunately, very limited information is available regarding the treatment of dissolved fractions.A commercial (Filtrasorb 400) and modified activated carbons were evaluated to remove benzene, toluene, and naphthalene from water, which are the most soluble aromatic hydrocarbons, at different ionic strengths (I) and temperatures (0-0.76 M and 4-25 °C, respectively). This allowed simulating the conditions of fresh and saline waters when assessing the performance of these adsorbents. It was found that the hydrocarbons adsorption affinity increased 12 % at a I of 0.5 M, due to the less negative charge of the adsorbent, while at a high I (≃0.76 M) in a synthetic seawater, the adsorption capacity decreased 21 % that was attributed to the adsorbent's pores occlusion by water clusters. Approximately, 40 h were needed to reach equilibrium; however, the maximum adsorption rate occurred within the first hour in all the cases. Moreover, the hydrocarbons adsorption and desorption capacities increased when the temperature augmented from 4 to 25 °C. On the other hand, thermally and chemically modified materials showed that the interactions between adsorbent-contaminant increased with the basification degree of the adsorbent surface.