Robust Superhydrophobic Fabric Bag Filled with Polyurethane Sponges Used for Vacuum‐Assisted Continuous and Ultrafast Absorption and Collection of Oils from Water

Abstract

crude oil that greatly harmed the coastline and near-shore water, killing huge populations of marine animals and plants.Various methods have been applied in oil spill cleanup such as mechanical collection, controllable burn, and chemical decomposition. [3][4][5] However, those techniques are time-consuming, environment unfriendly, and expensive. Recently, researchers prefer to design and fabricate functional membrane materials and adsorbents with special wettability for oil/ water separation, protecting environment from secondary pollution and reducing the loss. [6][7][8][9] Jiang and co-workers, for the fi rst time, fabricated a mesh fi lm possessing both superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties to separate oil from water, exhibiting high oil/water separation effi ciency and selectivity. [ 10 ] Subsequently, abundant materials with both superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties are generally applied to removal of oil from water, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] such as metallic mesh-based materials, [21][22][23] sponges and foam-based materials, [24][25][26] ceramic microfi ltration membranes, [ 27 ] carbon-based materials, [ 28,29 ] oil-absorptive rubber, [ 30 ] fabrics, [31][32][33] etc. In general, these materials were obtained by roughening of their surfaces and posthydrophobization. Various approaches have been used to construct hierarchical rough structures needed for superhydrophobicity, such as a sol-gel method, [ 34 ] chemical vapor deposition, [ 35 ] hydrothermal method, [ 36 ] electrochemical method, [ 37 ] spray method, [ 38,39 ] and so forth. Nevertheless, most of the methods involved in fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces have limitations for large-scale fabrication, due to complicated processes, sophisticated equipment, and low commercial availability of raw materials. In addition, the traditional fi lterable materials cannot easily be applied in oil spills, because they need to gather polluted water fi rst and then fi lter it. Therefore, it is imperative to fi nd high-performance absorbent materials for the removal of large amounts of oil pollutant from the water surface.Recently, superhydrophobic/superoleophilic 3D sponges have received considerable attention due to their rapid absorption Removal of oil from water has become an increasingly important fi eld due to the frequent oil spill accidents as well as industrial oily wastewater. In this study, a bag is made from superhydrophobic fabric and stuffed with pristine polyurethane (PU) sponge just utilizing the synergetic effect of the superhydrophobic and superoleophilic selective absorption of oil from water of the fabric and the excellent large volume-based oil storage capacity of the PU sponge. The superhydrophobic fi lling bag can quickly absorb and collect a large amount of oil from a polluted water surface with the separation effi ciency always above 98.2% % for a series of oil/water mixtures. In addition, the fi lled orignial sponges exhibit large volume-based absorption capacity up to 20-36 times its own weight, ke...

A Robust Carbon Nanotube and PVDF‐HFP Nanofiber Composite Superwettability Membrane for High‐Efficiency Emulsion Separation

“…Therefore, it is significant that the emulsified oil/water mixtures, especially surfactant‐stabilized W/O emulsions, can be separated and used in industrial production safely and efficiently. [ 3 ] Nevertheless, many oil purification technologies, such as physical adsorption, [ 4 ] electrocoagulation, [ 5 ] ultrasonic, [ 6 ] centrifugation, [ 7 ] and biological treatment, [ 8 ] usually suffered disadvantages of low separation efficiency, high energy cost, complex operation process, or time‐consuming, and they are seldom qualified to the separation of highly emulsified emulsions. [ 9 ]…”

Recent Advancement in Plant Oil Derived Polyol‐Based Polyurethane Foam for Future Perspective: A Review

“…Nikkhah et al [166] modified PU foam by using C20A nanoclay; the addition of 3 wt% nanoclay showed good sorption and oil removal property instead of 2 and 4 wt%. Li et al [167] reported an ultrafast continuous process for oil-water separation using PUF.…”

Argon Plasma Treatment of Fluorine‐Free Silane Coatings: A Facile, Environment‐Friendly Method to Prepare Durable, Superhydrophobic Fabrics

“…[1][2][3][4] Superhydrophobic fabrics are anticipated to have strong decontamination ability but still maintain the excellent breathability. Three main approaches have been reported to prepare superhydrophobic fabrics: (1) roughening the fiber surface of hydrophobic fabrics (e.g., PET fabrics), (2) roughening fiber surfaces followed by hydrophobic treatment, and (3) modification of fibers with proper chemicals.…”