Three-dimensional graphitic carbon sphere foams as sorbents for cleaning oil spills

Frequent offshore oil spill accidents, industrial oily sewage, and the indiscriminate disposal of urban oily sewage have caused serious impacts on the human living environment and health. The traditional oil–water separation methods not only cause easily environmental secondary pollution but also a waste of limited resources. Therefore, in this work, three-dimensional (3D) graphitic carbon sphere (GCS) foams (collectively referred hereafter as 3D foams) with a 3D porous structure, pore size distribution of 25–200 μm, and high porosity of 62vol% were prepared for oil adsorption via gel casting using GCS as the starting materials. The results indicate that the water contact angle (WCA) of the as-prepared 3D foams is 130°. The contents of GCS greatly influenced the hydrophobicity, WCA, and microstructure of the as-prepared samples. The adsorption capacities of the as-prepared 3D foams for paraffin oil, vegetable oil, and vacuum pump oil were approximately 12–15 g/g, which were 10 times that of GCS powder. The as-prepared foams are desirable characteristics of a good sorbent and could be widely used in oil spill accidents.