Fabrication of porous tubular carbon fibers from the fruits of platanus orientalis and their high oil adsorption properties

Abstract Faced with the stark challenge of global oil spills, development of clean absorbent materials is crucial. In this paper, the plant fibers extracted from the waste platanus orientalis are transformed by vacuum carbonization method, and the fibers with micron-size cavities and porous pipe walls are obtained simply and cheaply. The fibers exhibit high oil adsorption capacity. The effects of carbonization conditions, adsorption temperature and time on adsorption capacity are systematically investigated. Specific surface area of F900-10 obtained by vacuum carbonization at 900 °C for 10 h is 702.44 m2/g. It has the best adsorption performance and can absorb 71.72-172.37 times of its own weight. Meanwhile, oil can be removed quickly by simple extrusion, and the oil removal rate reaches 63.18% - 95.67%. The adsorption sites of the tubular carbon fibers to the oil include micron-scale cavities, the physical cross-linking network that overlaps between the fibers, and the nano-scale pores on the tube wall. Further, the practicability of F900-10 is tested by simulating oil leakage in diverse environments, and its removal efficiency ranged from high to low in seawater, glass, soil and sand. High adsorption capacity and significant oil removal rate make F900-10 a promising oil adsorption material with high potential value.