24 pieces of work stood out from 145 entries in the Science Festival of Southeast University, which was closed on Jun 4. A dozen of representative works were exhibited on the closing ceremony, drawing the attention of students and representative enterprises present.
In one example, Chen Fangtao, a grade-second postgraduate student from Electronic Engineering College, with several bottles in hands, was demonstrating how a common piece of “coal” can absorb greasy dirt leaked by oil tankers on ocean.
In the bottle was graphene oxide solution which was formed by processing graphite with potassium permanganate and strong acid. After constant heating, this transparent liquid turn into column-shaped graphene. Cooled and dried, these hard graphene blocks would turn to crispy graphene sponge. One piece of graphene sponge could absorb greasy dirt 300 times of its weight and can be recycled for over 10 times. Also, 99% of oil absorbed by graphene sponge can be extracted and reused.
