Selective adsorption of oil–water mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)–graphene sponges

Abstract

We report a porous and green three dimensional (3-D) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)–graphene sponge with hydrophobic and oleophilic properties using the sugar templating method. The prepared sponge exhibited high adsorption performance for the removal of petroleum products, organic solvents and emulsified oil–water mixtures, especially under a continuous vacuum regime achieving an adsorption capacity of 4.5 L of hexane in 30 min. The proposed synthetic method is simple and economical for the scalable production of porous 3-D graphene sponges, which can be successfully used for efficient and cost-effective oil spill clean-ups and water purification for environmental applications.