Coating Cellulosic Materials with Graphene for Selective Absorption of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water

Development of efficient and eco-friendly sorbents used for selective oil removal after oil spill disasters is one of the main topics in environmental science. By using various cellulosic materials coated with graphene flakes, using simple, one-step dip-coating method, it was possible to manufacture environmentally friendly, selective oil sorbents. The cellulosic materials of different yarn size and distribution such as cotton roving, gauze, fabric, and cellulosic wipe and Whatman filter paper were chosen. The scanning electron microscopy showed that simple dip-coating of any cellulosic materials into graphene dispersion creates a uniformly distributed nanomaterial coating. The wetting tests confirmed that the coating endowed cellulosic materials with hydrophobic properties, regardless of their initial yarn distribution and purity. Moreover, the water repellent samples were simultaneously highly sorptive towards oils and organic solvents. Sorption tests performed for a representative group of organic solvents and oils have shown that depending on cellulosic material the oil sorption capacity varied from 4 g/g to 33 g/g for cotton fabric and roving, respectively. Moreover, the absorption selectivity of chloroform versus water exceeded 90 % for each sample and reached over 99 % for the graphene coated cotton roving and gauze. Finally, the recyclability tests have shown that graphene coated materials are less fragile for reuse than naturally hydrophobic sorbents.