Preparation and Its Adsorptive Property of Modified Expanded Graphite Nanomaterials

Liqin Wang,Xiujun Fu,Haitao Wu,Kun Zhang,Ruijun Zhang,E Chang,Xiaowen Qi,Yulin Yang,Xianchao Lei

doi:10.1155/2014/678151

Abstract

Modified expanded graphite (MEG) samples were prepared by strong acid treatment modification. As-prepared MEG samples were characterized by the means of FE-SEM, XRD, FT-IR, N2physical adsorption measurements, and TG-DTA. The influences of expanded volume and oil viscosity on adsorptive property of MEG samples were investigated. The results suggest that MEG samples have high crystallinity. The pores of MEG samples can be divided into three levels from FE-SEM images. All of the functional groups of MEG samples are nonpolar. The expansion temperature of modified expansible graphite starts at about 700°C. The sorption capacity of MEG increases gradually with expanded volume and oil viscosity increase. When the expanded volume of MEG samples is 320 mL/g, its maximum sorption capacity is up to 84.681 g/g for gear oil with the highest viscosity.

Highlights

In recent years, the spill oils pollutions have caused extensive and widespread concerns
H2O2 was used as the oxidant, concentrated H2SO4 was used as the intercalator, and the Modified expanded graphite (MEG) samples were prepared by strong acid treatment modification
The results show that the oil viscosity has a great influence on the sorption capacity of MEG, and the maximum sorption capacity of MEG increases gradually with the increase of the oil viscosity for the same expanded volume

Summary

Introduction

The spill oils pollutions have caused extensive and widespread concerns. The expanded graphite (EG) with a majority of macropores [1,2,3] and nonpolar surface make it as an excellent material for absorbing nonpolar and macromolecular compounds, especially for various kinds of oils. Many scholars have paid more attention to research the relationships between the preparation conditions, pore structure, and its sorption capacities [6,7,8]. H2O2 was used as the oxidant, concentrated H2SO4 was used as the intercalator, and the MEG samples were prepared by strong acid treatment modification. Six kinds of industrial oils such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, machine oil, crude oil, and gear oil were used as sorbents to investigate the sorption capacity of MEG samples

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Adsorptive Property

Conclusions