Oil Water Separation: Inauguration of Cellulose and Chemically Modified Cellulose-rGO via Graphene Oxide Functionalization

Abstract

The expenditure on water remediation is the constant main rationalization. However, the adoption of our lignocellulosic biomass at the highest level might provide a solution. Therefore, our main objective is to enhance the surface area of cellulose on the surface of empty oil palm fruit bunch fibers via a functionalization of graphene oxide (GO) and lamination of GO on the surface of EFB cellulose (EFBC) occurred by the intermolecular hydrogen bonding through a thermal treatment of reduced-graphene oxide. The hydrophobicity of the functionalized cellulose (EFBC_rGO) was improvised by a single layer grafting of graphene in the selectively separate oil for water remediation. The optimization of EFBC_rGO on the selectivity of oil uptake was carried out in different temperature and oil, kinetic sorption and chemical analysis. The modified EFBC_rGO showed distinct morphological and chemical characteristic changes as the surface of cellulose had been coated with rGO. This was supported by the FTIR analysis that showed a diminishing peak of hydroxyl group region of EFBC and that chemical modification has improved the hydrophobicity of the EFBC_rGO. In the contact angle measurement, the EFBC_rGO showed better hydrophobicity compared to EFBC. In the oil uptake study, increasing the temperature up to 80oC has increased the oil uptake up to 94% by EFBC_rGO at 9:1 water-oil ratio. Meanwhile, the kinetic sorption revealed that 60 min treatment was the maximum time for oil sorption.