Carbon-based sponges for oil spill recovery

A marine oil spill is an event of significant environmental criticality before which the authorities, who have to attend, act in an emergency framework. The choices must be made quickly and in an unusual climate and it is not easy to guarantee its effectiveness, risking that the intervention may even worsen the situation. Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic materials, in the last decades, have shown potential applications in oil spill cleanup due to their exceptional absorption capacities, high selectivity, chemical inertness, and outstanding recyclability. In particular, carbon-based absorbents have been considered the best candidates. Carbon, graphene, or carbon nanotube foams or sponges have been lately investigated for oil-spill cleanup. In such a context, in the literature, there are several studies suggesting that carbon-based materials play a crucial role in a hydrocarbon spill. These new materials could have noteworthy potential for future use in this field. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the use of these innovative materials as powerful alternatives for ecofriendly management of oil spill remediation in the coming decades. For this reason, the synthesis, morphological and mechanical characterization, sorption capacity evaluation, and reusability of these carbon-based absorbents have been reviewed and their performances were compared.