Recently, oil-spilling in the sea is a worldwide environmental problem and thus effective oil collection technique is highly required. One of the major strategies is using hydrophobic and oleophilic porous materials to absorb oil while it repels water. Here, techniques to remote-control the materials contacting with oil/water mixture are required so to apply for collecting oil even in hazardous area. One approach is embedding magnetic particles into oil absorbents, which enables the absorbents remotely contact with oil driven by magnetic force. There are few reports of magnetic oil absorbents and most of them achieved by multi-step processes or using hazardous materials, which inhibits their practical use. In this study, we introduce a single step dipping method to give magnetic and hydrophobic/oleopphilic properties to melamine foam sponge structure. The absorbent was fabricated by dipping into the mixture of Poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) as a hydrophobic polymer and synthesized Fe3O4 nanoparticles as magnetic particles dissolved in tetrahydrofuran(THF). The coated material showed hydrophobicity and oleophilicity whereas it maintained intrinsic softness and light weight (Figure 1). Thanks to the presence of Fe3O4, the material performed magnetic controllability on water guided by a magnet as shown in Figure 2. Such simple method of designing smart wetting system can be helpful for development of material engineering.

Single step dipping method of fabricating Fe3O4/PVDF-HFP composite porous material for magnetically controllable oil-water separation

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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