Abstract
Biomass is the most plentiful and well-utilized renewable carbon resource on the earth. Direct conversion of biomass to carbon aerogel provides a promising approach to develop adsorbent materials. In the present work, the effect of presence of water during hydrothermal treatment and holding temperature during post-pyrolysis process have been investigated for the preparation of carbon aerogels (CAs) using eggplant as raw material. The results showed that the addition of water during hydrothermal treatment was advantageous for the preparation of CA samples with higher surface area and stronger hydrophobicity, resulting in superior adsorption capacities of CAs for both oil and organic solvents compared with that fabricated without the presence of water. The optimized carbon aerogel possessed higher specific surface of 249 m2·g−1 and exhibited excellent hydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 133°. The adsorption capacities of carbon aerogel for oils and organic solvents could reach 35–45 times its own weight. In addition, the adsorbed oil and organic solvents could be recovered by distillation, and the regenerated carbon aerogels samples exhibited the stable performance and outstanding reusability. Therefore, the carbon aerogel has great potential in application of oil recovery and environmental protection.
Highlights
In order to reduce water pollution and protect the environment, it is urgent to develop an economic and feasible strategy to remove the pollutants such as petroleum products and toxic organic solvents from wastewater [1]
The effect of presence of water during hydrothermal treatment and holding temperature during post-pyrolysis process had been investigated for the preparation of carbon
The results showed that the presence of water or not temperature during post-pyrolysis process had been investigated for the preparation of carbon during hydrothermal treatment was the key point for preparation of carbon aerogels (CAs) samples with outstanding aerogels using eggplantWith as raw
Summary
In order to reduce water pollution and protect the environment, it is urgent to develop an economic and feasible strategy to remove the pollutants such as petroleum products and toxic organic solvents from wastewater [1]. Many conventional methods including adsorption, oil combustion, and physical diffusion have been used to recover crude oil and organic solvents. They either show poor efficiency or may introduce other types of containments during the cleanup procedures [2,3,4]. Much attention has been paid to developing porous materials as oil adsorbents because they could achieve oil-water separation via a simple, fast, and effective adsorption process [2]. The aerogel has been demonstrated to be a very efficient oil adsorbent due to the ultra-light and highly porous structure. The conventional aerogel materials possessed the drawbacks of low absorption capacities and nonselective adsorption to both water and oil
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