Robust Bifunctional Compressed Carbon Foam for Highly Effective Oil/Water Emulsion Separation

In
this study, we report the pure compressed carbon foam (CCF)
that offers a brand-new solution for separating emulsified oil/water
mixtures. The CCF was fabricated by low-temperature carbonization
of three-dimensional commercial melamine foam, which was then compressed
without any further chemical modification. The CCF has amphiphilicity
in air, underwater superoleophobicity, and underoil superhydrophobicity;
therefore, it has been proved to be successfully utilized in highly
emulsified oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions with excellent
separation efficiencies, and it merely relies on gravity in the absence
of external force. The CCF can also maintain its superwetting property
under different harsh conditions, including strong acid, alkali, and
salt solution conditions; this property offers great opportunities
for widespread applications. Importantly, the CCF exhibits excellent
permeability, separation efficiency, antifouling, and reusability
performance. This novel CCF material has great potential application
in handling oily wastewater owing to its low-cost raw materials, easily
scaled-up preparation process, excellent antifouling property, and
high separation capacity of materials.