Mesoporous Carbon Fabricated by Using Polydopamine Microspheres as Precursor for Effective Oil/Water Separation

Mesoporous carbon microspheres (MOCM) with large specific surface area have been developed using polydopamine microspheres (PDAM) synthesized by a biomimetic method as precursor. The PDAM preparation method has the merits of requiring mild conditions and simple operation and being environmentally friendly; MOCM were fabricated using a simple method involving pyrolyzation of PDAM. Different techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction analysis, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller measurements, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, were applied to characterize the MOCM, and the results showed that MOCM exhibited favorable hydrophobicity and excellent lipophilicity. The pump oil and lubricating oil adsorption capacity of MOCM could reach 12 g g−1 and 11.5 g g−1, respectively, and the reusability study indicated that, after eight cycles, the lubricating-oil adsorption capacity of the regenerated MOCM could still remain at 95.7%. All results demonstrated that the MOCM exhibited excellent performance for separation of oil from water.