Abstract
Oil spills in the sea have caused many serious environmental problems worldwide. In this study, carbon nanotube (CNT) sponges were used to cleanup oil slicks on sea waters. This method was compared with two traditional representative sorbents, including polypropylene fiber fabric and woolen felt. The CNT sponges had a larger oil sorption capacity than the other two sorbents. The maximum oil sorption capacity (Q m) of the CNT sponge was 92.30 g/g, which was 12 to 13.5 times larger than the Q m of the other two sorbents (the Q m of the polypropylene fiber fabric and woolen felt were 7.45 and 6.74 g/g, respectively). In addition, unlike the other two sorbents, the CNT sponge was superhydrophobic and did not adsorb any water during oil spill cleanup. CNT sponges are potentially very useful for cleaning up oil spills from sea water.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bayat A, Aghamiri S F, Moheb A, et al. Oil spill cleanup from sea water by sorbent materials. Chemical Engineering & Technology, 2005, 28(12):1525–1528
Fay J A. Model of spills and fires from LNG and oil tankers. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2003, 96(2–3):171–188
Daling P S, Singsaas I, Reed M, et al. Experiences in dispersant treatment of experimental oil spills. Spill Science & Technology Bulletin, 2002, 7(5–6):201–213
Ceylan D, Dogu S, Karacik B, et al. Evaluation of butyl rubber as sorbent material for the removal of oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from seawater. Environmental Science & Technology, 2009, 43(10):3846–3852
James I D. Modelling pollution dispersion, the ecosystem and water quality in coastal waters: a review. Environmental Modelling & Software, 2002, 17(4):363–385
Zheng L, Yapa P D. Modeling gas dissolution in deepwater oil/gas spills. Journal of Marine Systems, 2002, 31(4):299–309
Teas C, Kalligeros S, Zanikos F, et al. Investigation of the effectiveness of absorbent materials in oil spills clean up. Desalination, 2001, 140(3):259–264
Mauter M S, Elimelech M. Environmental applications of carbonbased nanomaterials. Environmental Science & Technology, 2008, 42(16):5843–5859
Deschamps G, Caruel H, Borredon M-E, et al. Oil removal from water by selective sorption on hydrophobic cotton fibers. 1. Study of sorption properties and comparison with other cotton fiberbased sorbents. Environmental Science & Technology, 2003, 37(5):1013–1015
Deschamps G, Caruel H, Borredon M-E, et al. Oil removal from water by sorption on hydrophobic cotton fibers. 2. Study of sorption properties in dynamic mode. Environmental Science & Technology, 2003, 37(21):5034–5039
Radetić M M, Jocić D M, Jovančić P M, et al. Recycled woolbased nonwoven material as an oil sorbent. Environmental Science & Technology, 2003, 37(5):1008–1012
Toyoda M, Inagaki M. Heavy oil sorption using exfoliated graphite: New application of exfoliated graphite to protect heavy oil pollution. Carbon, 2000, 38(2):199–210
Wong K, Stewart H O. Oil spill boom design for waves. Spill Science & Technology Bulletin, 2003, 8(5–6):543–548
Prince R C. Bioremediation of marine oil spills. Trends in Biotechnology, 1997, 15(5):158–160
Gui X C, Wei J Q, Wang K L, et al. Carbon nanotube sponges. Advanced Materials, 2010, 22(5):617–621
ASTM D 1141. Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol. 11.02. Philadephia, PA: American Society of Testing and Materials, 2003
Bastani D, Safekordi A A, Alihosseini A, et al. Study of oil sorption by expanded perlite at 298.15 K. Separation and Purification Technology, 2006, 52(2):295–300
Yaneva Z, Koumanova B. Comparative modelling of mono- and dinitrophenols sorption on yellow bentonite from aqueous solutions. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2006, 293(2):303–311
Rudzinski W, Plazinski W. Kinetics of solute adsorption at solid/aqueous interfaces: searching for the theoretical background of the modified pseudo-first-order kinetic equation. Langmuir, 2008, 24(10):5393–5399
Ho Y S, Mckay G. Pseudo-second order model for sorption processes. Process Biochemistry, 1999, 34(5):451–465
Kumar K V. Pseudo-second order models for the adsorption of safranin onto activated carbon: Comparison of linear and nonlinear regression methods. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2007, 142(1–2):564–567
Kumar K V, Porkodi K. Modelling the solid-liquid adsorption processes using artificial neural networks trained by pseudo second order kinetics. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2009, 148(1):20–25
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhu, K., Shang, YY., Sun, PZ. et al. Oil spill cleanup from sea water by carbon nanotube sponges. Front. Mater. Sci. 7, 170–176 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-013-0200-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-013-0200-1