Facile and Green Synthesis of Melamine-Formaldehyde@rGO Foam with Enhanced Superhydrophobicity for Oil Removal Application

Main Article Content

Natcha Jirasuttisarn
Chaval Sriwong*

Abstract

This research presented a more effective method to synthesize superhydrophobic melamine-formaldehyde (MF) foam coated with reduced graphene oxide (MF@rGO) by a conventional heating process. This is a facile and green method based on the use of graphene oxide, GO, as a precursor, and vitamin C as a reductant. The effect of recoating GO onto MF@rGO to form MF@rGO-recoat foam on superhydrophobicity was also investigated. Then, pristine GO, rGO, MF and as-synthesized MF@rGO foams were analyzed and their structures confirmed by several techniques including FTIR, Raman, SEM, TEM, and water contact angle (WCA). The results indicated that the WCA values of MF@rGO and MF@rGO-recoat foams were increased from 144.1° to 156.9°, respectively. Furthermore, the adsorption capacity (Qe), oil removal performance, and recyclability of MF@rGO-recoat foam were investigated. The adsorption capacity of MF@rGO-recoat foam was higher than 103.8 g.g-1 for all the oils tested (palm oil, gasoline, diesel and lubricant oil), and the highest value was 115.9 g.g-1 for lubricant oil. Besides, MF@rGO-recoat foam can be easily recycled up to 10 times for removal of all oils tested. Thus, this work provides a new alternative eco-friendly way to synthesize MF foam coated with rGO sheets and the synthesized MF@rGO foam can be applied and reused for the removal of oil spillages from water or wastewater.


Keywords: superhydrophobicity; reduced graphene oxide (rGO); melamine-formaldehyde (MF) foam; adsorbent; vitamin C; oil removal; water pollution


* Corresponding author: Tel.: (+66) 23298000-11


                                              E-mail: [email protected]

Article Details

Section
Original Research Articles

References

Allgayer, R., Yousefi, N. and Tufenkji, N., 2020. Graphene oxide sponge as adsorbent for organic contaminant: comparison with granular activated carbon and influence of water chemistry. Environmental Science Nano, 7, 2669-2680.

Baig, N., Ihsa, N., Sajid, M. and Saleh, T.A., 2019. Graphene-based adsorbents for the removal of toxic organic pollutants: A review. Journal of Environmental Management, 244, 370-382.

Xu, T., Wang, Z., Ding, Y., Xu, W., Wu, W., Zhu, Z. and Fong, H., 2018. Ultralight electrospun cellulose sponge with super-high capacity on absorption of organic compounds. Carbohydrate Polymers, 179, 164-172.

Periasamy, A.P., Wu, W.P., Ravindranath, R., Roy, P., Lin, G.L. and Chang, H.T., 2017. Polymer/reduced graphene oxide functionalized sponges as superabsorbents for oil removal and recovery. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 114, 888-895.

Xu, M., Ma, Y., Liu, R., Liu, Y., Bai, Y., Wang, X., Huang, Y. and Yuan, G., 2020. Melamine sponge modified by graphene/polypyrrole as highly compressible supercapacitor electrodes. Synthetic Metals, 267, 116461, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.synthmet.2020.116461

Lu, X., Cui, Z., Wei, W., Jiang, J., Huang, J. and Liu, J., 2016. Constructing polyurethane sponge modified with silica/graphene oxide nanohybrids as a ternary sorbent. Chemical Engineering Journal, 284, 478-486.

Liu, C., Yang, J., Tang, Y., Yin, L., Tang, H. and Li, C., 2015. Versatile fabrication of the magnetic polymer-based graphene foam and application for oil-water separation. Colloids and Surface A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 468, 10-16.

Peng, M., Chen, G., Zeng, G., Chen, A., He, K., Huang, Z., Hu, L., Shi, J., Yuan, L. and Huang, T., 2018. Superhydrophobic kaolinite modified graphene oxide-melamine sponge with excellent properties for oil-water separation. Applied Clay Science, 163, 63-71.

Rahmani, Z., Samadi, M. T., Kazemi, A. and Rashidi, A.M., 2017. Nanoporous graphene and graphene oxide-coated polyurethane sponge as a highly efficient superhydrophobic, and reusable oil spill absorbent. Journal of Environmental Chemical and Engineering, 5, 5025-5032.

He, Y., Liu, Y., Wu, T., Ma, J., Wang, X., Gong, Q., Kong, W., Xing, F., Liu, Y. and Gao, J., 2013. An environmentally friendly method for the fabrication of reduced graphene oxide foam with a super oil absorption capacity. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 260, 796-805.

Guo, T., Chen, X., Su, L., Li, C., Huang, X. and Tang, X.Z., 2019. Stretched graphene nanosheets formed the obstacle walls in melamine sponge toward effective electromagnetic interference shielding applications. Materials and Design, 182, 108029, https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.matdes.2019.108029

Zhang, C., Li, H., Zhuo, Z., Dugnan, R., Sun, C., Chen, Y. and Liu, H., 2017. Facile fabrication of ultra-light and highly resilient PU/RGO foams for microwave absorption. RSC Advances, 7, 41321-41329.

Jirasuttisarn, N. and Sriwong, C., 2020. Effect of graphene oxide precursor loading on the surface of melamine-formaldehyde/rGO sponge with enhanced ultra-hydrophobicity for oils removal. American Journal of Nano Research and Applications, 8(2), 22-27.

Phompet, C., Sriwong, C. and Ruttanapun, C., 2019. Mechanical, dielectric, thermal and antibacterial properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-nanosized C3AH6 cement nanocomposites for smart cement-based materials. Composites Part B: Engineering, 175, 107128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2019.107128

Sriwong, C., Choojun, K. and Kongtaweelert, S., 2017. Investigation of the influences of reaction temperature and time on the chemical reduction of graphene oxide by conventional method using vitamin C as a reducing agent. Materials Science Forum, 909, 225-230.

Dashairya, L., Sahu, A. and Saha, P., 2019. Stearic acid treated polypyrrole-encapsulated melamine formaldehyde superhydrophobic sponge for oil recovery. Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials, 2, 70-82.

Li, D., Muller, M.B., Gilje, S., Kaner, R.B. and Wallace, G.G., 2008. Processable aqueous dispersions of graphene nanosheets. Nature Nanotechnology, 3, 101-105.

Liu, Y., Ma, J., Wu, T., Wang, X., Huang, G., Liu, Y., Qiu, H., Li, Y. and Wang, W., 2013. Cost-effective reduced graphene oxide-coated polyurethane sponge as a highly efficient and reusable oil-absorbent. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 5, 10018-10026.

Qiu, L., Zhang, R., Zhang, Y., Li, C., Zhang, Q. and Zhou, Y., 2018. Superhydrophobic, mechanically flexible and recyclable reduced graphene oxide wrapped sponge for highly efficient oil/water separation. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 12, 390-399.

Merline, D.J., Vukusic, S. and Abdala, A.A., 2013. Melamine formaldehyde: curing studies and reaction mechanism. Polymer Journal, 45, 413-419.

Yousefi, N., Wong, K., Hosseinidoust, Z., Sørensen, H.O. and Tufenkji, N., 2018. Hierarchically porous, ultra-strong reduced graphene oxide-cellulose nanocrystal sponges for exceptional adsorption of water contaminants. Nanoscale, 10, 7171-7184.

Nakanishi, K. and Hofmann, S., 2020. Ordered graphitic microfoams via shrinkage and catalytic conversion of polymer scaffolds. APL Materials, 8, 021106, https://doi.org/10.1063/ 1.5136235

Zhu, H., Chen, D., Yang, S., Li, N., Xu, Q., Li, H., Wang, L., He, J., Jiang, J. and Lu, J., 2016. A versatile and cost-effective reduced graphene oxide-cross-linked polyurethane sponge for highly effective wastewater treatment. RSC Advances, 6, 38350-38355.

Liu, W., Li, M., Jiang, H., Zhang, X. and Qiao, J, 2019. High performance graphene-melamine sponge prepared via eco-friendly and cost-effective process. Journal of Nanoparticles Research, 21, 36, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-018-4457-2