Abstract
Advances in the use of porous materials for oil-water separation offer a promising avenue for solving oil spill problems. Conventionally, to realize selective oil absorption, porous sorbents need to be fully hydrophobized with low-surface-energy chemicals. However, such exhaustive hydrophobization brings about problems of excessive chemical consumption, high cost and increased environmental hazards, hindering the practical applications of sorbents. Here, an innovative type of oil sorbent is developed via a facile liquid film-based dip coating technique. Unlike conventional fully-hydrophobized sorbents, only the outmost layer of our sorbent is modified with hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating while the inner part remains hydrophilic, thus achieving 80% reduction in low-surface-energy chemical consumption. The prepared sorbent allows highly selective oil absorption from oil-water mixture, as the hydrophobic skin layer blocks water entrance and the hydrophilic inner part drives oil absorption. More importantly, our sorbent significantly speeds up oil absorption, and compared with conventional hydrophobic sponges, the absorption time is reduced by 36% for absorption of the same mass of crude oil, attributed to the strong capillary absorption of its hydrophilic inner channels. This sorbent also shows larger specific absorption capacity than its fully hydrophobized counterpart. Our study provides a general strategy to develop cost-effective and environmental-benign sorbents with enhanced oil spill absorption performances.
摘要
基于多孔材料的油水分离为解决溢油污染问题提供了一个有前景的途径. 传统上, 为了实现选择性吸油, 多孔材料需要用低表面能化学试剂进行充分的疏水处理, 以赋予其疏水/亲油特性. 然而, 这种充分的疏水处理既导致了高成本, 又由于过度的化学试剂消耗增加了环境危害, 阻碍了其实际应用. 在此, 我们通过一种简单的液体薄膜浸渍技术, 开发了一种替代性的吸油剂, 即具有疏水皮肤层的亲水海绵. 与传统的全疏水吸油剂不同, 我们制备的海绵只有最外层用疏水聚二甲基硅氧烷(PDMS)涂层进行了改性, 疏水化学试剂消耗减少达80%. 该海绵疏水皮肤层阻挡了水的进入, 而内部亲水主体促进了油的吸收, 因此可以从油水混合物中高度选择性吸收油. 更重要的是, 这种皮肤层结构海绵表现出增强的吸油速度. 与传统的疏水海绵相比, 在吸收相同质量原油时, 吸收时间可减少36%. 这主要归功于其亲水内部通道相比于传统吸油剂疏水通道具有更强大的毛细管吸收作用. 此外, 该海绵还显示出比完全疏水海绵更强的吸收容量. 这项研究提供了一个开发具有增强吸油性能的低成本、 环境友好吸油剂的通用策略.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22072185, 21872176, 21805315, and 12072381), the Pearl River Talents Program (2017GC010671), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2018A030310062 and 2019A1515012030).
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Author contributions Chen Q carried out the investigation and wrote the draft; Liu S and Chen L performed the characterization; Wu T and Tian X contributed to the conceptualization, supervision and writing.
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Qiyuan Chen is currently doing her research at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, under the supervision of Prof. Xuelin Tian. Her research interest mainly focuses on the design of novel porous materials for liquid separation and purification.
Xuelin Tian is a professor at Sun Yat-sen University. He obtained his BS degree and PhD degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2001 and 2006, respectively. His research interests include surface liquid manipulation, membrane separation, advanced antifouling materials, and dynamic liquid-like interface materials.
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Chen, Q., Liu, S., Chen, L. et al. Nontraditional oil sorbents: Hydrophilic sponges with hydrophobic skin layer for efficient oil spill remediation. Sci. China Mater. 65, 1929–1936 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-021-1981-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-021-1981-4