The Preparation Of Functionalized Graphene Aerogels And Application In Oil-Water Separation

To address oil spillage and organic contaminant problems,the preparation of efficient sorbent materials is of great importance for global environment and water source protection.Despite extensive studies,sorbents with both high efficiency and recyclability are still desired,particularly with the outstanding sorption performance for different temperature environmental conditions.Herein,we report a robust reduced graphene aerogel(rGA)and a compressible grapheme aerogel(CGA)as efficient and recyclable sorbents for oils and organic solvents.The rGA shows highly efficient absorption of various oils and organic solvents(up to19-26 times of its own weight)and excellent recyclability(>5 times)by heat treatment.Moreover,the absorption ability of rGA can be maintained over a wide temperature range of-40 ? to 240 ?,which can be attributed to the inherent excellent thermal stability of graphene and good heat dispersal of three dimensional network structure.Based on these excellent properties,the rGA is considered to be an ideal material can be employed for separation and absorption of waste oil and organic contaminants from the water surface at various temperatures.In contrast,the CGA shows a better absorption of various oils and organic solvents than the rGA(up to 30-38 times of its own weight).In addition,CGA also has an excellent hydrophobicity and recyclability.More important,CGA has compressible mechanical properties that can remove and collect oils and organic solvents through a simple squeeze way,which prevent environmental pollution and save the cost.The excellent properties of graphene aerogels provide a new potential in oil-water separation.