Acrylic ester resin (AER) is a promising oil‐absorbing material for oils and organic solvents absorption because it exhibits high oil retention ability, good swelling properties, and reusability while also being inexpensive, large‐scale production, and environmentally benign. However, the AER is not fully utilized owing to its low oil absorption capacity and slow oil absorption rate. In this work, we combine porous structures of MnO2 and swelling properties of AER and design a novel route to fabricate sea urchin‐like MnO2/AER hybrids. In this route, the sea urchin‐like MnO2 was prepared by a facile hydrothermal method in acidic media. The sea urchin‐like MnO2/AER hybrids with different wt% were synthesized by a microwave polymerization route. The resin hybrids exhibited very rough surfaces, which are beneficial for organic molecules absorption and diffusion into the interiors of materials. The resin hybrids can remove oils and organic solvents from water with high selectivity and absorption capacity, and can absorb not only floating oil but also heavy organic solvents underwater. The maximum absorption capacity of resin hybrids was found at the MnO2 content of 3%, and maximum absorption capacity up to 32.5 times of their own weight, higher than that of the pure AER. The performances were mainly attributed to the unique porous structure of MnO2 and swelling properties of AER, indicating the potential application of such oil‐absorbing resins to introduce the porous inorganic materials for developing new oils and organic solvents absorbent for removal of organic pollutants from the wastewater. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:4041–4049, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers

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Microbubbles have been widely used in many research fields due to their outstanding physicochemical properties and unique structural characteristics, especially as ultrasonic contrast agents and drug delivery carriers. However, the stability of conventional microbubbles is generally poor, which limits the development of their applications. Loading nanoparticle to microbubbles has great potential in enhancing the stability of microbubbles. This paper reports for the first time the feasibility of one-step preparation of nanoparticle-loaded microbubbles by coaxial electrohydrodynamic atomization. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used as the model material of the bubble shell layer to study the effect of the loading of nanoparticles on the stability of microbubbles. The results show that the concentration of nanoparticles has a significant impact on the stability of microbubbles, and loading an appropriate amount of nanoparticles is helpful in improving the stability of microbubbles. The results also show that nanoparticle-loaded microbubbles with a size distribution in the range of 120–200 μm can be prepared under optimal conditions.

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