Fabrication of magnetic carbon fibers with three-dimensional structure from Luffa sponge for the separation of oily pollutants from water

Mousavi, Fatemeh Sadat; Nasouri, Komeil; Moradi, Hamidreza

doi:10.22034/jtst.2026.543528.1514

Fabrication of magnetic carbon fibers with three-dimensional structure from Luffa sponge for the separation of oily pollutants from water

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research/ Original/ Regular Article

Authors

Fatemeh Sadat Mousavi ¹

Komeil Nasouri ²

Hamidreza Moradi ³

¹ Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran

² Faculty of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

³ Msc student, Textile chemistry and fiber science group, Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran

10.22034/jtst.2026.543528.1514

Abstract

Oil spills and oily pollutants in aquatic environments represent a serious global environmental challenge. In this study, a cost-effective and sustainable approach was developed to fabricate three-dimensional magnetic carbon fibers derived from natural loofah sponge. The loofah precursor was pretreated with phosphoric acid and subsequently carbonized, while magnetic properties were introduced through the thermal decomposition of cobalt chloride salt, leading to the formation of cobalt and cobalt oxide nanoparticles. Thermal treatment was carried out at 500 °C, 650 °C, and 800 °C, and the equilibrium oil sorption capacities of the resulting samples were found to be 32.18 ± 0.21 g/g, 30.20 ± 0.32 g/g, and 20.33 ± 0.39 g/g, respectively. The results demonstrate that the produced carbon fibers not only exhibit high oil sorption efficiency but also enable rapid and facile recovery due to their magnetic nature. Overall, this work presents a simple and low-cost strategy for converting loofah waste into advanced magnetic carbon adsorbents with promising applications in oil spill remediation and environmental protection.

Keywords

Luffa sponge

Waste

Carbon fibers

Oil sorption

Cobalt

Subjects