LAUSR

Nowadays, oil pollution of water caused by illegal discharges or accidental events occurs frequently, and the waste of resources and environmental pollution cannot be ignored, so effective oil–water separation methods are needed to cope with such incidents. To solve these problems, this paper investigated an aerogel made from a plant polysaccharide, konjac glucomannan (KGM), supplemented with graphene oxide (GO), to improve the mechanical properties. Finally, a hydrophobic layer was attached to the surface and interior of the aerogel via chemical vapor deposition to improve its selectivity toward oil. Through a series of characterization methods such as infrared, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, it was demonstrated that KGM and GO were successfully cross-linked, resulting in excellent mechanical properties and directional absorption properties on oil. This composite polysaccharide aerogel could absorb oil 48 times its own weight. In addition, due to its strong mechanical properties, the gel can be reused many times, and the maximum recovery rate can be maintained at 96% after 10 cycles. Furthermore, the absorption of oil from water was conducted in a continuous mode, demonstrating the diversity of application scenarios. Generally, the results observed in this work have shown that the KGM aerogels have great potential for applications in oil–water separation.