Oil absorption capability of electrospun carbon nanofibrous membranes having porous and hollow nanostructures

Current commercial oil absorbents such as polypropylene based materials are lack of exciting absorption capability for oil spill cleanup. Designing economic, efficient and stable absorbent for oil spill is still a challenge. Herein three types of carbon nanofibrous membranes with porous and/or hollow individual carbon nanofibers from bicomponent and co-axial electrospinning were prepared and their morphology, porosity, surface property as well as oil absorption capacity and reusability were characterized and compared. The results indicated that the hollow structure from co-axial electrospinning does not play a favorable role in oil absorption. The reasons may be attributed to surface nature, pore volume and nanometer scale interconnected hollow channel/pore structure that are naturally associated with co-axial electrospinning.