Carbon microbelt aerogel prepared by waste paper : an efficient and recyclable sorbent for oils and organic solvents

Abstract

A carbon microbelt (CMB) aerogel with good selective sorption can be produced in large scale by using waste paper as a precursor. The CMB aerogel shows highly efficient sorption of organic liquids (pump oil: up to 188 times its own weight; chloroform: up to 151 times its own weight). Moreover, the CMB aerogel can be regenerated many times without decrease of sorption capacity by distillation, or squeezing depending on the type of pollutants.