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Hydrophobic carbon nanotubes for removal of oils and organics from water

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Abstract

In this work, we synthesized p-phenylenediamine modified carbon nanotubes (P-CNTs) by diazotization reaction. The resulting material shows a BET surface area of 285 m2 g−1 and a total volume of 0.65 cm3 g−1 with abundant mesopores. Also, the P-CNTs exhibit good surface hydrophobicity with water contact angle of 140.8°, which should be attributed to the cooperation of both surface roughness and hydrophobic chemical compositions (aromatic rings linkages) of P-CNTs. Taking advantages of the intrinsic porosity and surface hydrophobicity, the resulting P-CNTs exhibit a notably selective absorbing ability and good recyclability for removal of organics and oils from water, which makes them the promising candidates for liquid–liquid separation and waste oil treatment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51263012, 51262019 and 21306072), Fundamental Research Funds for the Universities of Gansu Province and Gansu Provincial Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant No. 1308RJDA012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing and Recycling of Non-ferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Petrochemical Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730050, People’s Republic of China

    Hanxue Sun, Peiqing La, Zhaoqi Zhu, Weidong Liang, Baoping Yang, Xinhong Zhao, Chunjuan Pei & An Li

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  1. Hanxue Sun
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  2. Peiqing La
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  3. Zhaoqi Zhu
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Correspondence to An Li.

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Sun, H., La, P., Zhu, Z. et al. Hydrophobic carbon nanotubes for removal of oils and organics from water. J Mater Sci 49, 6855–6861 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8387-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8387-9

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