With the growth in oil production and transportation, industrial oily wastewater and oil-spill accidents have become the most significant threat to the environment. To deal with oily water, polyurethane (PU) sponges are widely used as the substrates for the preparation of superhydrophobic/superoleophilic materials for oil/water separation. However, the fragments which fall off from used PU sponges would cause secondary pollution. Chitosan is documented to the properties of environmental friendly. In this study, chitosan was selected as substrates to prepare chitosan sponge with special wettability via a simple method with assistant of dioctyl sulfosuccinate (DSS) and epichlorohydrin (ECH), according to its availability in a variety of useful forms. We also report the fabrication of durable superhydrophobic modified chitosan sponges for the selective removal of organic pollutants from water.  A precipitation-dialysis associated with freeze drying method was established. 1 g chitosan (CS) was dissolved in 100 mL acetic acid (HAc) aqueous solution (1 wt%) under stirring to form homogenous CS/HAc solution. Then 1 wt% DSS solution was added into CS/HAc solution slowly. At last, the superhydrophobic chitosan (DSS-CS) sponge was obtained by freeze drying in coated wells. Fig. 1 showed the surface wettability and the microstructures of DSS-CS sponge. It possessed a good 3D porous structure and the chloroform drop could be fully absorbed into the sponge instantaneously. While, the water drop was spherical in shape on the DSS-CS sponge, and the contact angle of water is 141.7°. Additionally, the DSS-CS sponge could maintain a highly absorptive capacity after being reused for many cycles. Moreover, the superhydrophobic sponge can be used repeatedly for the selective and quick absorption of various insoluble organic pollutants from water with high separation efficiency. We hope that this kind of superhydrophobic/superoleophilic chitosan sponge would be a promising absorbent material for the removal of oil from water in environmental remediation.

Dioctyl sulfosuccinate modified superhydrophobic/superoleophilic chitosan sponge for the selective removal of oily pollutants from water

256th National Meeting (2018)

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