Multiwall carbon nanotube reinforced teflon fibrils for oil spill clean up and its effective recycling as textile dye sorbent

Abstract

Surface functionalized multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) reinforced teflon fibrils (MWCNT@Teflon) were successfully tested as an - oil - absorbent that can be used as a potential oil recovery material at the time of oil spill accidents in water. We found that oleic acid functionalization of MWCNTs was important for their adhesion onto teflon fibrils and at the same time prevented the MWCNT leaching into oil/water interface. The fibrils had displayed superior mechanical and thermal stability and provided a new insight to oil spill clean-up applications with easy recovery of absorbed oil by simple squeezing. Recycling of exhausted MWCNT@Teflon fibrils after oil recovery applications was conducted by pyrolysis under inert atmosphere in presence of magnetic clay. The magnetic clay absorbed the pyrolysis products, resulting in a heterostructured magnetic clay carbon composite (MCC) which was found super paramagnetic and chemically stable in all pH. The MCC was found capable of adsorbing textile dye from water ultra-fast with in a maximum contact time of 2 min and magnetically separable after adsorption experiments. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.