Luo Zirong, Huang Shenbo, Kong Na, Zhang Jizhen, Tao Jinlong, Li Jihua, Li Shuang
Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Natural Rubber Processing, Agricultural Products Processing Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences Zhanjiang 524001 P. R. China
Guangdong Engineering & Technology Research Centre of Graphene-like Materials and Products, Department of Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University Guangzhou 510632 P. R. China.
RSC Adv. 2025 Jan 3;15(1):1-13. doi: 10.1039/d4ra06747a. eCollection 2025 Jan 2.
Addressing the environmental challenges posed by oil spills and industrial wastewater is critical for sustainable development. Graphene aerogels demonstrate significant potential as highly efficient adsorbents due to their high specific surface area, excellent structural tunability and outstanding chemical stability. Among available fabrication methods, the hydrothermal self-assembly technique stands out for its low cost, high tunability and good scalability. However, brittleness caused by stacking and agglomeration of graphene layers during self-assembly remains a significant challenge. In this study, we present a green and efficient self-assembly strategy combining a one-step hydrothermal process with a solution immersion method to fabricate a PDMS-coated epoxidized natural rubber-graphene composite aerogel (P@EGA). The resulting aerogel exhibits a high specific surface area (482.362 m g), hierarchical pore distribution from microporous to macroporous, ultra-low density (0.0104 g cm) and excellent hydrophobicity (contact angle = 147.6°). Remarkably, it retains 97.54% of its compressive stress after 50 compression-release cycles at 80% strain and quickly recovers its shape under a 500 g load. The P@EGA aerogel demonstrates outstanding adsorption capacities (65.37-132.75 g g) for various oils and organic solvents, complete oil absorption in 0.4 seconds, and effortless regeneration through simple squeezing. Furthermore, its dual functionality in gravity-driven and powered water-oil separation systems underscores its broad application potential in environmental remediation.
应对石油泄漏和工业废水带来的环境挑战对可持续发展至关重要。石墨烯气凝胶因其高比表面积、出色的结构可调控性和卓越的化学稳定性，展现出作为高效吸附剂的巨大潜力。在现有的制备方法中，水热自组装技术因其低成本、高可调控性和良好的可扩展性而脱颖而出。然而，自组装过程中石墨烯层的堆叠和团聚导致的脆性仍然是一个重大挑战。在本研究中，我们提出了一种绿色高效的自组装策略，将一步水热法与溶液浸渍法相结合，制备了聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）包覆的环氧化天然橡胶-石墨烯复合气凝胶（P@EGA）。所得气凝胶具有高比表面积（482.362 m²/g）、从微孔到宏孔的分级孔隙分布、超低密度（0.0104 g/cm³）和优异的疏水性（接触角 = 147.6°）。值得注意的是，在80%应变下经过50次压缩-释放循环后，它仍保留其压缩应力的97.54%，并在500 g负载下能快速恢复形状。P@EGA气凝胶对各种油类和有机溶剂表现出出色的吸附容量（65.37 - 132.75 g/g），在0.4秒内可完全吸油，且通过简单挤压即可轻松再生。此外，其在重力驱动和动力水-油分离系统中的双重功能突出了其在环境修复中的广泛应用潜力。
