Low optical dosage heating-reduced viscosity for fast and large-scale cleanup of spilled crude oil by reduced graphene oxide melamine nanocomposite adsorbents.

Heating under low solar radiation intensity is demonstrated to facilitate the cleaning of crude oil by the hydrophobic nanocomposite adsorbents of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) melamine sponge (MS@RGO) foams. The heat generated by the irradiation reduces the viscosity of the crude oil, and consequently increases the oil-diffusion coefficient of the pores of the MS@RGO foams and speeds up the oil-sorption rate. Even under a solar radiation intensity as low as 2 kW m, the temperature of crude oil rapidly rises to 68 °C or higher within 10 min.