Superhydrophobic polyurethane sponge for efficient water-oil emulsion separation and rapid solar-assisted highly viscous crude oil adsorption and recovery

Coupling Carbon-Based Composite Phase Change Materials with a Polyurethane Sponge for Sustained and Efficient Solar-Driven Cleanup of Viscous Crude Oil Spill

“…The original PU sponge, PEG, and PEG@PP show an unsatisfactory photothermal conversion, and the temperature is only about 43.0 °C after 600 s irradiation (Figure c). However, the composites containing CNTs/MC can rapidly reach above 90.0 °C in a short time under the same radiation conditions, which is superior to most high-viscosity oil adsorbents previously reported. − In addition, the heating curve of PEG@CMPP-3 appears as a temperature plateau between 53.6 and 65.0 °C (Figure d), implying that it undergoes a phase change process with thermal energy stored. Once the light was switched off, the temperature of the samples dropped immediately to room temperature except for the PEG@CNTs/MC and PEG@CMPP-3.…”

Photothermal, Magnetic, and Superhydrophobic PU Sponge Decorated with a Fe3O4/MXene/Lignin Composite for Efficient Oil/Water Separation

“…The light adsorption performances of five PU sponges (i.e., pristine PU sponge, fluorinated Fe 3 O 4 @PU sponge, fluorinated MXene@PU sponge, fluorinated Fe 3 O 4 /MXene@PU sponge, and S–Fe 3 O 4 /MXene/lignin@PU sponge) and three nanomaterials (i.e., lignin, Fe 3 O 4 , and Fe 3 O 4 /MXene) are shown in Figures a and S7 with the wavelength range of 200–800 nm. It can be found that the pristine PU sponge exhibits a weak response to the light, while three photothermal PU sponges display excellent light adsorption ability due to the synergistic effect of photothermal heat absorbers and porous-structured PU sponges with multiple scattering effects. , Among the three photothermal PU sponges, the S–Fe 3 O 4 /MXene/lignin@PU sponge shows the best light adsorption ability when the wavelength of light is larger than 750 nm, indicating that the introduction of lignin promotes the photothermal effect of the S–Fe 3 O 4 /MXene/lignin@PU sponge. Also, the photothermal effect of the three PU sponges described above can be characterized by measuring the maximum surface temperature (Figure b).…”

“…Due to the enormous global energy demand and the rapid development of industries, oily wastewater pollution has become a serious threat to the environment, ecosystem, and human beings because of frequent oil spills and the discharge of industrial and domestic oily wastewaters . To address this problem, various techniques have been employed for the treatment of oily wastewaters, including skimming, bioremediation, in situ burning, floatation, and chemical dispersion. − These traditional methods, however, suffer from high cost, low separation efficiency, susceptibility to secondary pollution, and complex operating conditions. , Thus, it is necessary to explore a cheap, efficient, recyclable, and environmentally friendly method for treating oily wastewaters.…”

A hydrophobic–superoleophilic 2D Zr-based alkyne-rich metal–organic framework for oil/water separation and solar-assisted oil evaporation

“…3b and S28, † the absorption capacity of ZrL1@PU for chloroform reached 66.19 g g −1 while it was still 43.43 g g −1 for acetone (lowest density among the tested samples; for absorption capacity towards the rest of the oils, see Table S2 †). The absorption capacity of selected oil species by ZrL1@PU is comparable to the top level and better than most other MOF-based absorbents [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] (Table S3 †). As the recyclability and operational stability of the absorbent are of paramount importance in industrial prospects, ZrL1@PU was taken for 20 absorption/desorption cycles.…”