Preparation of lightweight and hydrophobic natural biomass-based carbon aerogels for adsorption oils and organic solvents

In the present work, an excellent carbon aerogel (PCA) with low density, hydrophobicity and porous structure has been successfully prepared by hydrothermal carbonization, freezing-drying and post-pyrolysis process based on the abundant and environmental friendly natural biomass discarded shaddock peel as raw material. The results indicated that PCA exhibited low density of 18.6 mg/cm 3 , favorable hydrophobicity with water contact angle of 121° and porous structure properties. Owing to these intrinsic advantages of PCA, it demonstrated superior adsorption capacity (23 ~ 48 times to its own weight) for selectively adsorption oils and organic solvents. Furthermore, combustion and distillation can be employed to recover PCA and harvest pollutants. And PCA was regenerated and found to be suitable for reuse in successive adsorption–desorption cycles six times without significant loss in adsorption capacity. All the above results suggested that the prepared PCA has a great potential for application in eliminating spilled oils and environmental protection.