Superhydrophobic Activated Carbon‐Coated Sponges for Separation and Absorption

Abstract

Highly porous activated carbon with a large surface area and pore volume was synthesized by KOH activation using commercially available activated carbon as a precursor. By modification with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), highly porous activated carbon showed superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 163.6°. The changes in wettability of PDMS‐ treated highly porous activated carbon were attributed to the deposition of a low‐surface‐energy silicon coating onto activated carbon (confirmed by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy), which had microporous characteristics (confirmed by XRD, SEM, and TEM analyses). Using an easy dip‐coating method, superhydrophobic activated carbon‐coated sponges were also fabricated; those exhibited excellent absorption selectivity for the removal of a wide range of organics and oils from water, and also recyclability, thus showing great potential as efficient absorbents for the large‐scale removal of organic contaminants or oil spills from water.

Capture and reversible storage of volatile iodine by porous carbon with high capacity

“…The carbon material was synthesized from commercial AC under argon atmosphere at 800°C using KOH activation, which has been widely used to generate highly micro-or nano-structures on mesoporous carbon, graphene, carbon nanotubes, and carbide-derived carbons to increase the special surface areas and pore volume as well as improve their adsorption properties for contaminates and gas [19][20][21][22]. During the KOH activation, the prominent chemical reaction between KOH and C involves the process [23,24]: 6KOH ?…”

Synthesis of conjugated microporous polymers for gas storage and selective adsorption

“…Such superwetting property of the CMPs enables the selective absorption of oils and organic solvents from water by simply applying them into oils (organics)/water system, which opens a new way to address the environmental issues especially for the global scale of severe water pollution arising from oil spills and industrial organic pollutants. To achieve better adsorption performance as well as good adsorption selectivity in organics/water systems, it is important to design the new CMPs with suitable porosity and morphology, which are two key factors that should be taken into account since both adsorption performance (porous property) and adsorption selectivity (surface superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity) are closely relative to these two factors [32][33][34]. Along this line, several kinds of CMPs were synthesized by us through direct (A 3 ?…”

Facile Preparation of Flexible, Optically Transparent Superhydrophobic Surfaces by Conjugated Microporous Polymer

“…Painting fine microgel particles (particle sizes smaller than 10 μm) of the CMP on PDMS surfaces by a brush, then removal of those loosely attached particles by air flush followed by rubbing the particles layer by a cloth, we obtained a stable, macroscopically homogeneous particles layer on PDMS surfaces ( Fig. 2c and d), which is similar to various artificial superhydrophobic surfaces, such as polyelectrolyte multilayer surface coated with silica nanoparticles [12], electrodeposited cauliflower-like poly(fluorinated thiophene) films on ITO electrode [13] and electrochemical deposited gold clusters on polyelectrolyte multilayer modified ITO electrode [3]. During rubbing process, we found that the microgel particles of the CMP can be pressed to insert into the surface of PDMS substrate due to the rigid and porous structure of the CMP microgel particles and soft nature of the PDMS, giving a stronger adhesive force between the CMP particles and substrates.…”