The separation of the oil and the organic contaminants from the water is the area of high interest. The water is continuously being polluted from the oil and the organic contaminants due to rapid industrialization and high energy demands. History has also revealed numerous oil spill incidents that severely damaged aquatic life and human life. The oil and the non-polar organic contaminants can be separated by selectively adsorbing or filtering them from the water with the help of the superhydrophobic surfaces. The surfaces are defined as superhydrophobic if they displayed the water contact angle greater than 150°. We modified various surfaces such as meshes and polyurethane with various low surface energy materials to achieve superhydrophobic surfaces that display the water contact angle of greater than 150°. To generate the superhydrophobic surface, at first step the surface roughness was generated and in the second step the surface was functionalized with the low surface energy material. The polypyrrole was catalytically polymerized on the surface of the polyurethane that produced the superhydrophobicity by interacting with the low surface energy material such as octadecyltrichlorosilane. The developed material has displayed the maximum absorption capacity of 34 times (w/w ratio) for various non-polar organic contaminants.  The separation efficiency was observed greater than 99%.<br/>

Chemically modified surfaces for the separation of non-polar organic contaminants from the water

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.