scholarly journals Superwetting Polymeric Three Dimensional (3D) Porous Materials for Oil/Water Separation: A Review

Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 806 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yihao Guan ◽  
Fangqin Cheng ◽  
Zihe Pan

Oil spills and the emission of oily wastewater have triggered serious water pollution and environment problems. Effectively separating oil and water is a world-wide challenge and extensive efforts have been made to solve this issue. Interfacial super-wetting separation materials e.g., sponge, foams, and aerogels with high porosity tunable pore structures, are regarded as effective media to selectively remove oil and water. This review article reports the latest progress of polymeric three dimensional porous materials (3D-PMs) with super wettability to separate oil/water mixtures. The theories on developing super-wetting porous surfaces and the effects of wettability on oil/water separation have been discussed. The typical 3D porous structures (e.g., sponge, foam, and aerogel), commonly used polymers, and the most reported techniques involved in developing desired porous networks have been reviewed. The performances of 3D-PMs such as oil/water separation efficiency, elasticity, and mechanical stability are discussed. Additionally, the current challenges in the fabrication and long-term operation of super-wetting 3D-PMs in oil/water separation have also been introduced.

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 625
Author(s):  
Qianqian Shang ◽  
Jianqiang Chen ◽  
Yun Hu ◽  
Xiaohui Yang ◽  
Lihong Hu ◽  
...  

A facile and environmental-friendly approach was developed for the preparation of the cross-linked nanocellulose aerogel through the freeze-drying process and subsequent esterification. The as-prepared aerogel had a three-dimensional cellular microstructure with ultra-low density of 6.05 mg·cm−3 and high porosity (99.61%). After modifying by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HTMS), the nanocellulose aerogel displayed stable super-hydrophobicity and super-oleophilicity with water contact angle of 151°, and had excellent adsorption performance for various oil and organic solvents with the adsorption capacity of 77~226 g/g. Even after 30 cycles, the adsorption capacity of the nanocellulose aerogel for chloroform was as high as 170 g/g, indicating its outstanding reusability. Therefore, the superhydrophobic cross-linked nanocellulose aerogel is a promising oil adsorbent for wastewater treatment.


Gels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Zhongjie Zhu ◽  
Lei Jiang ◽  
Jia Liu ◽  
Sirui He ◽  
Wei Shao

A superhydrophobic fluorinated silica functionalized chitosan (F-CS) aerogel is constructed and fabricated by a simple and sustainable method in this study in order to achieve highly efficient gravity-driven oil/water separation performance. The fluorinated silica functionalization invests the pristine hydrophilic chitosan (CS) aerogel with promising superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 151.9°. This novel F-CS aerogel possesses three-dimensional structure with high porosity as well as good chemical stability and mechanical compression property. Moreover, it also shows striking self-cleaning performance and great oil adsorption capacity. Most importantly, the as-prepared aerogels exhibits fast and efficient separation of oil/water mixture by the gravity driven process with high separation efficiency. These great performances render the prepared F-CS aerogel a good candidate for oil/water separation in practical industrial application.


Author(s):  
M. E. Mohamed ◽  
B. A. Abd-El-Nabey

Abstract In the present work, dopamine is self-polymerized on cotton fabric by a simple deep-coating method and followed by modification with an ethanolic solution of palmitic acid: a superhydrophobic/oleophilic cotton fabric was obtained. The as-prepared cotton fabric exhibits a superhydrophobic character with a water contact angle of 157o. The absorption capacity of as-prepared superhydrophobic/oleophilic cotton fabric in n-hexane, petroleum ether, and silicone oil was determined. The results show that silicone oil has the highest absorption capacity while n-hexane has the lowest value. The absorption capacity is nearly constant even after ten cycles, indicating the efficient recyclability of the as-prepared superhydrophobic/oleophilic cotton fabric for oil separation. The as-prepared superhydrophobic/oleophilic cotton fabric shows excellent separation efficiency, high flux rate, and excellent chemical and mechanical stability.


Author(s):  
Bharat Bhushan

Water contamination is one of the major environmental and natural resource concerns in the twenty-first century. Oil contamination can occur during operation of machinery, oil exploration and transportation, and due to operating environment. Oil spills occasionally occur during oil exploration and transportation. Water contamination with various chemicals is a major concern with growing population and unsafe industrial practices of waste disposal. Commonly used oil–water separation techniques are either time consuming, energy intensive and/or environmentally unfriendly. Bioinspired superhydrophobic/superoleophobic and superoleophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces have been developed which are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Bioinspired oil–water separation techniques can be used to remove oil contaminants from both immiscible oil–water mixtures and oil–water emulsions. Coated porous surfaces with an affinity to water and repellency to oil and vice versa are commonly used. The former combination of affinity to water and repellency to oil is preferred to avoid oil contamination of the porous substrate. Oil–water emulsions require porous materials with a fine pore size. Recommended porous materials include steel mesh and cotton fabric for immiscible oil–water mixtures and cotton for oil–water emulsions. A review of various approaches is presented in this paper. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bioinspired materials and surfaces for green science and technology (part 2)’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 760-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pin Song ◽  
Jun Di ◽  
Haiping Chen ◽  
Sirui Zhao ◽  
Cao Wu ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional (3D) aerogels have attracted more and more attention in oil–water separation, due to their advantages of low density, high porosity, and large specific surface area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-197
Author(s):  
Sen Wang ◽  
Xiao Wang ◽  
Xiao-yu Shi ◽  
Cai-xia Meng ◽  
Cheng-lin Sun ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 887-899
Author(s):  
Yanling Tian ◽  
Jiekai Feng ◽  
Zexin Cai ◽  
Jiaqi Chao ◽  
Dawei Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractReckless discharge of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage as well as frequent leakage of crude oil have caused serious environmental problems and posed severe threat to human survival. Various nature inspired superhy-drophobic surfaces have been successfully applied in oily water remediation. However, further improvements are still urgently needed for practical application in terms of facile synthesis process and long-term durability towards harsh environment. Herein, we propose a simple one-step dodecyl mercaptan functionalization method to fabricate Super-hydrophobic-Superoleophilic Copper Mesh (SSCM). The prepared SSCM possesses excellent water repellence and oil affinity, enabling it to successfully separate various oil-water mixtures with high separation efficiency (e.g., > 99% for hexadecane-water mixture). The SSCM retains high separating ability when hot water and strong corrosive aqueous solutions are used to simulate oil-water mixtures, indicating remarkable chemical durability of the dodecyl mercaptan functionalized copper mesh. Additionally, the efficiency can be well maintained during 50 cycles of separation, and the water repellence is even stable after storage in air for 120 days, demonstrating the reusability and long-term stability of the SSCM. Furthermore, the functionalized mesh also shows good mechanical robustness towards abrasion by sandpaper, and oil-water separation efficiency of > 96% can be obtained after 10 cycles of abrasion. The reported one-step dodecyl mercaptan functionalization could be a simple method for increasing the water repellence of copper mesh, and thereby be a great candidate for treating large-scale oily wastewater in harsh environments.


Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajo Yagoub ◽  
Liping Zhu ◽  
Mahmoud H. M. A. Shibraen ◽  
Ali A. Altam ◽  
Dafaalla M. D. Babiker ◽  
...  

The complex aerogel generated from nano-polysaccharides, chitin nanocrystals (ChiNC) and TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TCNF), and its derivative cationic guar gum (CGG) is successfully prepared via a facile freeze-drying method with glutaraldehyde (GA) as cross-linkers. The complexation of ChiNC, TCNF, and CGG is shown to be helpful in creating a porous structure in the three-dimensional aerogel, which creates within the aerogel with large pore volume and excellent compressive properties. The ChiNC/TCNF/CGG aerogel is then modified with methyltrichlorosilane (MTCS) to obtain superhydrophobicity/superoleophilicity and used for oil–water separation. The successful modification is demonstrated through FTIR, XPS, and surface wettability studies. A water contact angle of 155° on the aerogel surface and 150° on the surface of the inside part of aerogel are obtained for the MTCS-modified ChiNC/TCNF/CGG aerogel, resulting in its effective absorption of corn oil and organic solvents (toluene, n-hexane, and trichloromethane) from both beneath and at the surface of water with excellent absorption capacity (i.e., 21.9 g/g for trichloromethane). More importantly, the modified aerogel can be used to continuously separate oil from water with the assistance of a vacuum setup and maintains a high absorption capacity after being used for 10 cycles. The as-prepared superhydrophobic/superoleophilic ChiNC/TCNF/CGG aerogel can be used as a promising absorbent material for the removal of oil from aqueous media.


Soft Matter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caimei Zhao ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Chuanming Yu ◽  
Binghua Hu ◽  
Haoxuan Huang ◽  
...  

Super-hydrophobic porous absorbent is a convenient, low-cost, efficient and environment-friendly material in the treatment of oil spills. In this work, a simple Pickering emulsion template method was employed to fabricate...


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