Synthesis of Porous, Hydrophobic Aerogel Through the Reinforcement of Bamboo-Shaped Oxidized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in the Silica Matrix for Oil Spill Cleaning

In the present work, bamboo-shaped Oxidized Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes (O-MWCNT) synthesized through catalytic decomposition of natural gas were reinforced in a silica matrix to achieve a robust O-MWCNT-silica aerogel. The synthesized aerogel was hydrophobisized through surface modification with trimethylsilyl chloride for its application as an oil spill cleaning agent. The developed aerogel possesses high specific surface area of 795 m2/g evaluated from Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) model, with a pore size of 11.2 nm. The density of the O-MWCNT-silica aerogel was 0.02 g/cc with a porosity of 87