Engineering Reduced Graphene Oxide Aerogel Produced by Effective γ-ray Radiation-Induced Self-Assembly and Its Application for Continuous Oil–Water Separation

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide aerogel (RGO aerogel) is successfully synthesized via simultaneous reduction and self-assembly of graphene oxide (GO) sheets under γ-ray irradiation. As the resulting RGO aerogel possesses an interconnected macroporous structure with strong hydrophobicity and oleophilicity, it has great potential in oil–water separation. Adsorption–distillation and adsorption–combustion are both utilized to treat oil floating on water or oil sinking below the water surface. More importantly, a simple device has been developed to adsorb continuously and collect floating oil, and it has shown great promise for practical application.