Superhydrophobic poly (dimethylsiloxane-co-alkylmethylsiloxane)-SiO2-coated polyurethane sponge sorbent for oil spill treatment

Keshawy, Mohamed; . Farag, Reem K

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2021.79906.3933

Superhydrophobic poly (dimethylsiloxane-co-alkylmethylsiloxane)-SiO2-coated polyurethane sponge sorbent for oil spill treatment

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mohamed Keshawy ¹
Reem K . Farag ²

¹ Petroleum applications department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.

² Petroleum Applications Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI), Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/ejchem.2021.79906.3933

Abstract

Pollution caused by an oil spill has been identified as one of the major environmental problems with a serious impact on both humans and the ecosystem. The development of hydrophobic oil sorbents for the removal of spilled oil and organic solvent seeping is very important to ecological preservation. In this respect, a facile procedure was used to prepare commercial polyurethane sponge sorbent coated by Poly(dimethylsiloxane-co-alkylmethylsiloxane)-silica nanoparticles (PDMS/AMS-SiO2) through dip-coating accompanied by polymerization in situ. The obtained materials are characterized by various physico-chemical tools; such as DLS, Raman, XRD, SEM, and contact angles (CA). The PDMS/AMS-SiO2-P.U shows superhydrophobicity with water contact angle 145o with obtained selectivity for oil-water separation. Moreover, the oil sorption capacity was studied using different oils and organic solvents including crude oil, motor oil, diesel, and toluene. High sorption capacity exceeded 130 g/g and fast swelling kinetics rate is achieved. Furthermore, the sorbed organic solvent or oils can be recovered simply by squeezing the coated P.U, and the used sorbent can be reused up to 10 times without obvious deterioration in its swelling capacity or losing its hydrophobicity. The results indicating that the prepared sorbent has potential application in oil-water separation.

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