REMOVAL OF BTEX FROM WATER BY SUPER-EXPANDED GRAPHITE

Nanotechnologies and nanomaterials are the most promising technological frontier in the field of water protection in terms of high efficiency and environmental performances. Among them, graphene-based materials attracted a lot of interest during the last years. Graphene is the main building block of all graphite materials. It is a single sheet of carbon atoms contained in a 2D honeycomb lattice. The possibilities of technological applications of graphene-based materials are derived from some of their peculiar features such as high specific surface area, exceptional electrical conductivity and electron mobility. Expanded graphite is a graphene-based material deriving from graphite flakes expansion, which attracted a great interest in oil adsorption from water during the last ten years. A super-expanded graphite, with an apparent density down to 2.3 g/l, is characterized by highly crystalline nature that guarantees a thermal stability of the material up to 600°C in air and provides a hydrophobic behavior. Great efforts have been made in the last years to modify the water technologies for removing BTEX compounds from contaminated water. Although different methods have been used for BTEX removal from water, each of them possesses some limitations. Therefore a search of novel effective methods for water purification from BTEX compounds is still of recent interest. In this paper, we focus on the investigation of the adsorptive properties towards BTEX of super-expanded graphite