Exfoliated graphite blocks with resilience prepared by room temperature exfoliation and their application for oil-water separation

Exfoliated graphite (EG) blocks are prepared from the ultra-large flakes of graphite by intercalation of H2SO4 using a large amount of H2O2 at 5 °C and following exfoliation at 30 °C. By the exfoliation in a closed container, EG blocks with the bulk densities of 0.008~0.024 g/cm3 are successfully prepared. The resultant EG blocks have high sorption capacities for a diesel oil, up to 45 g/g. The EG blocks after oil sorption can get certain resilience for compressive stress with high reproducibility by compression-release cycles, which allows us to apply the compression-releasing for the oil sorption-desorption of the EG blocks. The performance of cyclic oil sorption-desorption by compression-releasing of EG block is compared with those of filtration and distillation. Since the resultant EG blocks had sufficient mechanical strength, the continuous removal of oil floating on the water surface is possible, exporting oil through a catheter inserted into the block and connected to a peristaltic pump. By warming up by Joule heating, even a crude oil having high viscosity can be continuously removed from the water with sufficient rate. The high hydrophobicity and lipophilicity of EG make selective removal of oil from water possible.