This article reports the first oil-absorbent cross-linked copolymer consisting of modified multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and showing high oil absorbency. Also, to investigate and evaluate the effective parameters on oil absorbency, cross-linked dodecyl methacrylate (DDMA)-diphenylacrylamide (DPAA) and DDMA-butyl acrylate (BA) copolymers were synthesized. DDMA was copolymerized with different mol% of DPAA or BA and cross-linked using azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator and various weight percentages of 1,4-butandiol dimethacrylate, methylene bisacrylamide, or vinyl group-modified MWCNT cross-linkers. The effects of monomer feed composition, cross-linker concentration, and the hydrophobicity of the copolymer units on swelling properties of the cross-linked copolymers were studied through the oil-absorbency tests. It was found that in the reactions used vinyl group-modified MWCNTs act as cross-linking agents for the free radical polymerization, carbon nanotubes (CNT) played the other roles, that is, as a comonomer and an adsorbent. The oil absorbents containing CNTs showed the highest oil absorbency (toluene, 42.6 g; crude oil, 36.0 g/g oil absorbent). Therefore, CNT-based oil absorbent can be introduced as a promising candidate for
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.