F R Sultanov
Institute of Combustion Problems, Kazakhstan
Title: Aerogels and sponges based on carbon nanomaterials for oil/water separation
Biography
Biography: F R Sultanov
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: The explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig released 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil booms, combustion, and oil skimmer vessels were used to clean up the oil spill, but often with poor efficiency and even with undesirable environmental side effects. There is a clear need of new cleanup materials for the collection and separation of large amount of organic pollutants from water surfaces. As a major oil production country, Kazakhstan is at risk of major disasters like spill at Caspian shelf, or during the processing and transportation of oil products. The purpose of this study is to obtain and study the possibility of using spongy carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) based aerogels and sponges for elimination of oil spills.
Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Composite aerogels were obtained using highly uniform graphene nano-platelets with thickness of 2 atomic layers comparing to ≥4 layers by the top-down process by microwave-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MECVD) process (bottom up approach), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and chitosan as a binder. Hydrophobic and oleophilic sponges the walls of which are coated with graphene oxide and MWCNTs were obtained by “dip-coating” method.
Findings: The sorption capacity of composite aerogels based MECVD graphene/ MWCNT/ chitosan (1 g) in regard to diesel is 101.3 g. It was found that these materials are good water repellent reusable sorbents for organic liquids. Sponges are highly hydrophobic due to existence of CNMs on their surface, their sorption time is fast and they can be easily regenerated by squeezing and heating.
Conclusion & Significance: The possibility of use these CNM’s coated sponges as a Super-hydrophobic and super-oleophilic filters on combined vacuum-oleophilic installation for collection of organic liquids from the surface of water is studied.
