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    Joule-heated graphene-wrapped sponge enables fast clean-up of viscous crude-oil spill

    Year: 2017

    Journal: Nat. Nanotechnol., Volume 12, MAY, page 434–440

    Authors: Ge, Jin; Shi, Lu-An; Wang, Yong-Chao; Zhao, Hao-Yu; Yao, Hong-Bin; Zhu, Yin-Bo; Zhang, Ye; Zhu, Hong-Wu; Wu, Heng-An; Yu, Shu-Hong

    Organizations: Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [21521001]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [21431006, 21761132008, 11525211]; Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS [QYZDJ-SSW-SLH036]; Chinese Academy of Sciences [KFJ-EW-116, KJZD-EW-M01-1]; Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB22040402]; Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2014CB931800]; Users with Excellence and Scientific Research Grant of Hefei Science Center of CAS [2015HSC-UE007]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [WK6030000018]

    The clean-up of viscous crude-oil spills is a global challenge. Hydrophobic and oleophilic oil sorbents have been demonstrated as promising candidates for oil-spill remediation. However, the sorption speeds of these oil sorbents for viscous crude oil are rather limited. Herein we report a Joule-heated graphene-wrapped sponge (GWS) to clean-up viscous crude oil at a high sorption speed. The Joule heat of the GWS reduced in situ the viscosity of the crude oil, which prominently increased the oil-diffusion coefficient in the pores of the GWS and thus speeded up the oil-sorption rate. The oil-sorption time was reduced by 94.6% compared with that of non-heated GWS. Besides, the oil-recovery speed was increased because of the viscosity decrease of crude oil. This in situ Joule self-heated sorbent design will promote the practical application of hydrophobic and oleophilic oil sorbents in the clean-up of viscous crude-oil spills.
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