| Summary: | Oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion has been a major concern for the petroleum industry. A cost-effective magnetite-reduced graphene oxide (MRGO) nanocomposite was synthesized to study the demulsification process of emulsion using said nanocomposite under solar illumination. Characterization data show that the magnetite was successfully deposited on reduced graphene oxide through redox reaction at varying loading amounts of magnetite. Demulsification of the O/W emulsion using MRGO nanocomposite shows that in general the demulsification efficiency was dependent on the loading amount of Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> on the RGO sheet. It was proposed that the surfactant hydroxyl groups have an affinity towards Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>, which the loading amount was directly proportionate to available active site in Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>. As the loading amount increases, charge recombination centers on the RGO sheet would increase, effectively affecting the charge distribution within MRGO structure.
|
|---|
