Influence of Reduced Graphene Oxide on Crude Oil/Water Separation

Despite the progress made in recent years in the involvement of graphene and its derivatives in oil/water emulsions as stabilizers or demulsifiers, materials' interaction still needs to be understood. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is one of the graphene derivatives that has promising implications in oil/water separation. It has unique physical properties that include large surface area, structural defects, and several functional groups on its surface. This study presents and highlights the influence of rGO in oil/water separation. Crude oil was examined at different concentrations of rGO and in different phase ratios of oil/water). The results reveal that rGO has an excellent performance. However, this depends on the oil-in-water (O/W) phase ratio, rGO dosage, and interaction time. The interphase interactions were evident in electrical capacitance analysis, where the quasimetallic effect of rGO is dominant. We believe that this work will inspire researchers to further investigate the performance of rGO in oil/water separation, where in the future it can be easily tailored by controlling rGO properties.