Regular problems faced due to chemical leaks and oil spills have caused tremendous threats to lakes and sea water. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop efficient strategies to remove oil and organic pollutants from water surfaces. The aim of this study is to develop a high performance magnetic, superhydrophobic/superoleophilic three-dimensional porous composite material for efficient and selective adsorption of organic pollutants from water. The composite material was fabricated by simple immersion of a commercially available polyurethane (PU) sponge into a solution of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containing pre-synthesized magnetic (Fe 3 O 4) nanoparticles. The composite material exhibited a water contact of ~155° and an oil contact angle of ~0°. The presence of the Fe 3 O 4 particles allowed magnetic-controlled elimination of underwater oil, while the superhydrophobic character of the functionalized PU sponge permitted efficient separation of oil/water mixtures and demulsification of toluene/water emulsions. Moreover, the HDPE coating not only firmly immobilized the magnetic particles, but also contributed to the excellent stability to the composite sponge which withstood acid, base, salts, seawater or temperature variation from-20 o C to 105 o C. In addition, the composite material maintained its oil adsorption ability over 10 cycles. The ease of fabrication of the magnetic super wetting 3D material sponge along with its durability and reusability makes it an interesting material with potential for practical applications.
New electrode composite materials consisting of NiMnCr Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs) coated on carbon spheres (CS) supported on nickel foam (NiMnCr LDHs@CS/NF) were synthesized using a two step hydrothermal process. The obtained binder-free NiMnCr LDHs@CS/NF composite was investigated as a positive electrode for supercapacitors and achieved a high specific capacity of 569 C g -1 at 3 A g -1 ; this value was ~6.5 times that of CS/NF (87.9 C g -1 at 3 A g -1 ) and ~3.3 times that of NiMnCr LDHs/NF composite (173.2 C g -1 at 3 A g -1 ). The NiMnCr LDHs@CS/NF composite retained ~76% of its original capacity after 10000 cycles, much better than ~54% achieved by NiMnCr LDHs/NF composite, suggesting good reversibility and stability. Furthermore, a hybrid supercapacitor was fabricated using NiMnCr LDHs@CS/NF as the positive electrode and FeOOH nanorods deposited on NF (FeOOH/NF) as the negative electrode. The hybrid supercapacitor displayed an energy density of 48 Wh kg -1 at a power density of 402.7 W kg -1 . A home-designed windmill device was successfully driven by the as-fabricated supercapacitor device for about 25 s. Additionally, two as-fabricated hybrid supercapacitor cells in series were used to light up a yellow LED and a red LED in parallel for ~111 s and ~343 s, respectively. Taken together, these results indicate that the developed electrodes hold a promising potential in energy storage application.
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