Fabrication of polypropylene/lignin blend sponges via thermally induced phase separation for the removal of oil from contaminated water

Abstract

Polypropylene is widely used in oil spillage cleanup due to excellent characteristics. However, polypropylene is not renewable and biodegradable, which is unacceptable to introduce new pollutants while solving environmental disasters. Therefore, there is a high demand to explore a low-cost, environmentally friendly, and renewable technique for the fabrication of porous materials. In this work, lignin was chosen as the second blend in the polymer matrix. Polypropylene and renewable lignin sponges were successfully prepared using simple, inexpensive, controllable, scalable, and an environment-friendly method named thermally induced phase separation (TIPS). The surface morphology of obtained sponges was investigated using FTIR and SEM. FTIR analysis indicated that PP and lignin were physically blended. SEM analysis observed an interconnected porous network that acts as a capture site of oil, and lignin merged into PP. The contact angle of PP, PP5L, PP10L, PP15L, and PP20L was found to be 127.4°, 118.71°, 113.89°, 109.45°, and 107°, respectively. Furthermore, polypropylene/lignin sponges have good adsorption ability toward oils compared to polypropylene itself. The research detected that the highest oil sorption tests exhibited by PP10L sponge, which could absorb 983% of soybean oil, 788% of engine oil, and 550% of lubricating oil in the oil system, with high oil retention more than 90% after 24-h dripping. Besides, the results revealed that temperature has a significant effect on oil absorption. All of these features make polypropylene/lignin blend sponges promising sorbents for the oil spills cleanup, not only for oil recovery but also helps in cleaning the environment.

Application of Biodegradable Materials in Oil‐Spill Cleanup: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

“…Even though a slight decrease in contact angle was observed with the addition of lignin into the polypropylene matrix, still this blend sponges showed a hydrophobic character. [ 69 ] O. Oribayo et al have used lignin as a polyol and developed PU foam. The hydrophobicity of foam was enhanced by using octadecylamine.…”

In Situ Nanofibrillar Polypropylene-Based Composite Microcellular Foams with Enhanced Mechanical and Flame-Retardant Performances

“…Owing to their light weight, thermal and acoustic insulation, excellent thermal resistance, and high specific mechanical strength [ 6 ], PP-based foams are commercially and technologically suitable for application in many industries including automotive and aerospace, cushioning and packaging, and construction and building. At present, various technologies, including particle leaching [ 7 ], thermal phase separation [ 8 ], ultrasonic [ 9 ] and 3D printing [ 10 ] have been developed to fabricate PP porous materials. Microcellular gas foaming with supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO 2 ) as a physical blowing agent is an advanced environmentally friendly and solvent-free way of manufacturing porous materials [ 11 ].…”

Novel, solvent‐based method for the production of polymer sheets with a superhydrophobic surface

“…Methods for producing roughened structured surfaces on PP using TIPS are becoming more widespread. [32,42,43] Many studies give a comprehensive overview of how crystallization depends on the tacticity and molecular weight of PP, [44][45][46] and how the structure and properties can be adjusted by changing the treatment conditions, such as solvent type and its temperature, [47] solution concentration [31,48] and cooling temperature. [49,50] Several phase separation-based technologies are used to form the superhydrophobic coating on the surface of a selected substrate.…”