Oil spill cleanup from sea water by carbon nanotube sponges

Oil spills in the sea have caused many serious environmental problems worldwide. In this study, carbon nanotube （CNT） sponges were used to cleanup oil slicks on sea waters. This method was compared with two traditional representative sorbents, including polypropylene fiber fabric and woolen felt. The CNT sponges had a larger oil sorption capacity than the other two sorbents. The maximum oil sorption capacity （Qm） of the CNT sponge was 92.30 g/g, which was 12 to 13.5 times larger than the Qm of the other two sorbents （the Qm of the polypropylene fiber fabric and woolen felt were 7.45 and 6.74 g/g, respectively）. In addition, unlike the other two sorbents, the CNT sponge was super- hydrophobic and did not adsorb any water during oil spill cleanup. CNT sponges are potentially very useful for cleaning up oil spills from sea water.