GUWAHATI : Researchers of Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati have developed a graphene-based superhydrophobic materials that can separate oiland water from both oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions, respectively.
Their work has recently been published in the Royal Society’s journal, Chemical Science. The research paper has been authored by Dr.Uttam Manna, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, IIT Guwahati, along with his research scholarsMr. Avijit Das, Mr. Kousik Maji, and Mr. SarajitNaska.
Oil–water separation techniques have a number of industrial and environmental applications. Various porous and bulk substrates such as sponge that are made superhydrophobic, have been used to absorb oil from oil-water emulsions. The IIT Guwahati team has shown the efficacy of hierarchically structured graphene oxide nanosheets in removing oil or aqueous contaminates from respective emulsions, thereby effecting separation of oil and water.
Superhydrophobic materials – materials with extreme water repellence – are considered the best materials for removing oil from water, and they are being extensively studied for applications such as water purification and self-cleaning surfaces. The problem with superhydrophobic materials is that they are generally not scalable, or use environmentally toxic products such as fluorinated polymers/small molecules, or have poor mechanical and chemical stability. Moreover, the conventional spongy superhydrophobic materials are inherently less appropriate for separating oil-in-water emulsion due to poor accessibility of the dispersed oil droplets to the oil absorbing superhydrophobic interface.
“The hydrophobicity of materials is largely governed by the physical architecture and the chemical composition, and so such materials can be rationally created by combining low-surface-energy materials with hierarchical roughness”,explains Dr. Manna. This is exactly what the group has done in its quest for oil-water separating materials. They have manipulated graphene, a form of carbon, to have superhydrophobic properties suitable for separation of oil from water in emulsions.
The study of graphene for such applications is not unprecedented. Since the award of the Nobel prize to its creators in 2010, graphene – two dimensional structures of carbon – has been extensively studied for a variety of applications. Composed of pure carbon, graphene is similar to graphite but with characteristics that make it extraordinarily light and strong, giving it a moniker of “wonder material” in present day materials science research. Research all over the world have attempted to engineer the structure and composition of graphene to get surface roughness and low surface energy, suitable for use in applications that require superhydrophobicity. Such engineering is challenging and complicated.
The IIT Guwahati team has developed afacile method to produce graphene oxide-polymer composite with hierarchical topography and low surface energy chemistry in the confined space. Such graphene oxide species showed ‘confined-super- water-repellence’. They further deposited iron oxide nanoparticles on the two dimensional nanosheets, which made the entire material magnetically active.
“Our graphene oxide composites were able to separate oil from water in emulsions with high efficiency”says Dr.Manna.The uniqueness was that the separation could be brought about even under extremes of pH, salinity, surfactant contaminations etc., as is seen in real life scenarios. The IIT Guwahati’s graphene oxide species was capable of selectively soaking up tiny crude-oil droplets in oil-to-water emulsions with high absorption capacity (above 1000 wt%), as well as coalescing larger oil droplets of emulsions from water-in-oil emulsions.
“Further functionalization of this chemically/magnetically active 2D-nano-interface could help in the development of functional interfaces for various applications related to energy, catalysis and healthcare”,says Dr.Manna.
