Enhancement of oil absorption properties of acrylic ester resin hybridized with well‐organized sea urchin‐like MnO₂

Abstract

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

Synthesis of octavinyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (ovi‐POSS) based organic/inorganic hybrid resin microspheres for rapid and efficient oils absorption

“…Introduction of ovi-POSS had indistinctive effect on the size of resin microspheres, whose diameter was approximately 150 μm. It is different from the composite oil absorption resins reported in literature, which were mainly large-sized irregular aggregates, [31][32][33] Figure 3a,b indicates that the PSBLA/ovi-POSS-1 resin presented regular and uniform-sized microspheres, which are slightly bonded to each other but when dropped into oils they swell and apart from each other as shown in Figure S3. Additionally, there were some pores on the surface of resin microspheres which may related to role of the porogenic agent.…”

Fabrication of three‐dimensional porous superhydrophobic composites for immiscible and emulsified oil/water mixture separation

“…Three-dimensional (3D) porous materials with a high porosity, low density, and tunable permeation channels are ideal substrates for preparing special wettability materials for oil/water separation. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Wang et al [29] prepared a superhydrophobic melamine foam by immersion in a polyvinyl alcohol aqueous solution and polydimethylsiloxane ethanol solution. The modified foam exhibited a high oil absorption capacity, excellent oil/water separation ability, and high flame retardancy.…”

Investigating the effect of surface composition and morphology on oil/water separation efficiency of sponges coated with polymer nanocomposites

“…Separation of oil from water has gained crucial attention from both academic and industrial researchers within the recent years due to the increment of industrial oily wastewater and polluted oceanic water as well as the oil leakage accidents [1][2][3]. Therefore, developing cost-effective functional materials with the capability of oil-water separation is necessary, and consequently, numerous reports could be found in the literature addressing such issue [4][5][6][7][8][9]. According to those reports, several efficient methods have been suggested for oil-water separation.…”

“…According to those reports, several efficient methods have been suggested for oil-water separation. Using those methods, many types of materials were utilized for the preparation of oil-absorbing systems such as acrylic ester resins [7], graphene-based sponges [10], superhydrophobic coatings [11], and modified filter papers [12]. However, several challenges still remain which limit the large-scale production of these materials due to the high cost and complexity of the production process, rather poor stability and flexibility as well as low level of selectivity and recyclability.…”