Facile fabrication of microporous vitreous carbon for oil organic solvent absorption

Abstract

The release of oils/organic solvents into a water body is a serious issue as oils and solvents can adversely affect the environment. In this study, a simple fabrication method of porous vitreous carbon oil/organic solvent absorber was developed, and it shows 7 times higher performance than other activated carbon absorber. Three-dimensional interconnected porous vitreous carbon (VC) has been demonstrated for cleaning spilled oils/organic solvents. The porous VC absorbent was fabricated by carbonizing a porous furan precursor, which was prepared by utilizing organic furan resin and table sugar as template materials. Unlike other template-based methods, no template dissolution processes are required in this study. The carbon content in the fabricated porous VC was 91.6%, as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The fabricated porous VC exhibited over-hydrophobic characteristics with a static contact angle of 135.1 degrees, and showed high absorption capacity for a wide range of oils/organic solvents. The absorption capacity ranged from 186% to 290% depending on the viscosity, density, and surface tension of the oils/organic solvents. In the reusability experiment, no significant discrepancies were observed in the absorption capacity even after seven cycles. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.