PDMS – Coated pomelo peel carbon aerogel: Synthesis, characterization, and oil removal application

Abstract

Raw pomelo peel (RPP) has been widely reported as a potential eco‐friendly adsorbent due to its porous structure. In this work, pomelo peel‐derived carbon aerogel (PCA) was synthesized by approaching simple methods: Hydrothermal treatment and freeze‐drying technique. The obtained PCA from RPP exhibits an abundance of honeycomb‐like open porous structure, ultralight density of 0.03 g/cm³, and porosity of 99.23 %. To enhance the hydrophobicity and selectivity for removal of oil in water, PCA was coated with Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) by facile dip‐coating method. The as‐prepared hydrophobic PDMS‐coated pomelo peel carbon aerogel (PDMS/PCA) exhibits the water resistance ability via the water contact angle of 101.6 ^o and good adsorption capacity of 11.672 and 7.691 g/g for used cooking and lubricating oils, respectively. Furthermore, the pseudo‐first‐order and pseudo‐second‐order models were approached to predict the adsorption behavior of PDMS/PCA for both used cooking and lubricating oils. The obtained results illustrate the potential application of RPP for synthesizing eco‐friendly and low‐cost adsorbents for the removal of oil in water.