Ahmad Kayvani Fard
Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar
Title: Carbon nanotubes doped with metal oxide nanoprticles as new materials for oil removal
Biography
Biography: Ahmad Kayvani Fard
Abstract
Water with oil contamination is one of the challenges in water resources management. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have caught a lot of attention as a new type of adsorbents due to their exceptional capacity for oil adsorption. In this work, we report on the synthesis and laboratory evaluation of multiwall carbon nanotubes decorated with different loadings of Fe2O3 and Al2O3 nanoparticles for oil-water separation. Pristine and modified CNTs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), The Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) technique, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The effect of adsorbent dosage, contact time, and agitation speed were examined on the oil spilling efficiency using batch adsorption experiments. The sorption capacities of modified CNTs were found to be greater than 7 g/g for gasoline oil. The modified CNTs due to their hydrophobic nature do not absorb water and has superior selectivity for organic compounds such as oil and organic solvents. These interesting materials show practical solution for water treatment especially in oil and gas industries.