Direct Oil Recovery from Saturated Carbon Nanotube Sponges.
Oil adsorption by porous materials is a major strategy for water purification and industrial spill cleanup; it is of great interest if the adsorbed oil can be safely recovered from those porous media. Here, direct oil recovery from fully saturated bulk carbon nanotube (CNT) sponges by displacing oil with water in controlled manner is shown. Surfactant-assisted electrocapillary imbibition is adopted to drive aqueous electrolyte into the sponge and extrude organic oil out continuously at low potentials (up to -1.2 V). More than 95 wt % of oil adsorbed within the sponge can be recovered, via a single electrocapillary process. Recovery of different oils with a wide range of viscosities is demonstrated, and the remaining CNT sponge can be reused with similar recovery capacity. A direct and efficient method is provided to recover oil from CNT sponges by water imbibition, which has many potential environmental and energy applications.
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Engineering, ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, §ERE & SKLTCS, College of Engineering, and ∥CAPT, HEDPS and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, BIC-ESAT, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Xiying
X
Li
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Engineering, ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, §ERE & SKLTCS, College of Engineering, and ∥CAPT, HEDPS and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, BIC-ESAT, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Yahui
Y
Xue
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Engineering, ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, §ERE & SKLTCS, College of Engineering, and ∥CAPT, HEDPS and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, BIC-ESAT, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Mingchu
M
Zou
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Engineering, ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, §ERE & SKLTCS, College of Engineering, and ∥CAPT, HEDPS and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, BIC-ESAT, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Dongxiao
D
Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Engineering, ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, §ERE & SKLTCS, College of Engineering, and ∥CAPT, HEDPS and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, BIC-ESAT, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Anyuan
A
Cao
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, College of Engineering, ‡Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, §ERE & SKLTCS, College of Engineering, and ∥CAPT, HEDPS and IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center of MoE, BIC-ESAT, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Huiling
H
Duan
carbon nanotube sponge; electrocapillary; imbibition; oil recovery; surfactant