Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Magnetic Sawdust as Effective and Recyclable Oil Sorbents

• Published in: Materials Vol. 12; no. 20; p. 3432
• Main Authors: Fan, Shumin, Pei, Shuai, Shen, Tianyu, Xu, Guangri, Li, Yuanchao, Fan, Wenxiu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 20.10.2019; MDPI
• Subjects: Absorption; Activated carbon; Contact angle; emulsion separation; Ethanol; Fourier transforms; Hydrophobic surfaces; Hydrophobicity; Iron oxides; magnetic; Morphology; Nanoparticles; oil absorption; Oil spills; Organic chemistry; Organic materials; Porous materials; Sawdust; Sorbents; Spectrum analysis; Stretching; superhydrophobic; Vibration; Water pollution; United States > US; China
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma12203432

In this paper, a novel superhydrophobic magnetic sawdust (SMSD) was fabricated as an oil sorbent. The SMSD was functionalized with Fe3O4 nanoparticles using melamine formaldehyde resin (MFR) as a coupling agent and subsequently hydrophobically-treated with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS). The SMSD showed excellent superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 155.3 ± 0.9°. Meanwhile it had remarkable environmental durability, long-term stability, and mechanical durable properties. Taking advantage of its magnetic characteristics, the SMSD could be easily controlled to absorb oil to separate oil–water mixtures with high oil absorption capacity and good reusability. Moreover, the emulsion was successfully separated by SMSD, including water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions. This study developed an effective oil absorbent, which was low cost and environmentally-friendly.