Graphene aerogel prepared through double hydrothermal reduction as high-performance oil adsorbent

Cork-like graphene aerogels were synthesized via EDA-ammonia double hydrothermal reduction approach. The synthesized porous aerogels displayed high porosity, hydrophobicity and excellent mechanical properties. Its adsorption efficiency for oil is significantly higher than that of conventional adsorbents, having oil capacity (130.10   g/g) for pure diesel and continuous treatment capacity (71.67   g/g) for emulsified oil in oil-contaminated water. Besides, its recycling performance was evaluated by mechanical extrusion, ethanol washing and calcined regeneration, and for emulsified oil, the adsorption process follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model and adsorption isotherms are related well by the Freundlich model with a determination coefficient. ( R 2 ) of 0.9994. Furthermore, a continuous aerogel-based water treatment process has been proposed to make the graphene-based aerogels have great potential applications for oil spill clean-up and water purification.