Panduranga, Kishan (2018-08). COTTON - GRAPHENE BASED NANO-COMPOSITES AS A SEMI-SUSTAINABLE MATERIAL FOR OIL AND CHEMICAL CLEANUP. Master's Thesis. Thesis uri icon

abstract

  • The world is facing severe ecological and environmental problems due to the oil spills and the discharge of organic solvents into the environment. This problem has led to development of different tools and high performance materials that can both effectively and efficiently absorb these discharges from water bodies. Moreover, greener and economical methods to produce these materials are on high demand. Herein, we demonstrate a novel method of attaching graphene to functionalized cotton cellulose. The hydrophobic graphene coated cellulose with a contact angle of 144.76 o (with water) shows great oil absorption with a contact angle less than 10o towards oil and non-polar organic solvents. The absorption experiments performed exhibited an absorption capacity of 28.32, 39.91, 42.32, 40.89, 22.1, 27.67, 34.69 and 39.01 for dodecane, paraffin oil, pump oil, mineral oil, hexane, toluene and crude oil respectively. In addition, the graphene coated cellulose revealed excellent reusability, great selectivity and a high capacity. By the combination of cost effective combination, eco-friendly nature and excellent oil absorption performance, the graphene coated cotton is a promising candidate with a strong potential for large scale removal of oils from water and their environmental remediation.
  • The world is facing severe ecological and environmental problems due to the oil
    spills and the discharge of organic solvents into the environment. This problem has led to
    development of different tools and high performance materials that can both effectively
    and efficiently absorb these discharges from water bodies. Moreover, greener and
    economical methods to produce these materials are on high demand. Herein, we
    demonstrate a novel method of attaching graphene to functionalized cotton cellulose. The
    hydrophobic graphene coated cellulose with a contact angle of 144.76 o (with water) shows
    great oil absorption with a contact angle less than 10o towards oil and non-polar organic
    solvents. The absorption experiments performed exhibited an absorption capacity of
    28.32, 39.91, 42.32, 40.89, 22.1, 27.67, 34.69 and 39.01 for dodecane, paraffin oil, pump
    oil, mineral oil, hexane, toluene and crude oil respectively. In addition, the graphene
    coated cellulose revealed excellent reusability, great selectivity and a high capacity. By
    the combination of cost effective combination, eco-friendly nature and excellent oil
    absorption performance, the graphene coated cotton is a promising candidate with a strong
    potential for large scale removal of oils from water and their environmental remediation.

publication date

  • August 2018