Abstract
In this study, we report the fabrication of hydrophobic cotton fibers via simple and cost-effective one step easy fabrication approach by utilizing waste recycled polyethylene (PE) gloves. Also, we prepared silres-modified cotton fibers with hydrophobic and oleophilic properties via a simple dip coating process. The resultant both coated cotton (PE and silres) fibers exhibited high repellency towards the water with water contact angle < 135° and superoleophilicity with an oil contact angle ˜ 0°. Due to such special wettability, the as-prepared cotton fibers exhibited high selective oil absorption capacity when used as absorptive materials for separating various oil/water mixtures under acidic, alkaline, and salt aqueous solutions. It was observed that oil/organic solvents absorption capacity of the PE coated cotton fibers was better (16.8–59.7 %, depending on the type of oil) than that of silres modifications. The fabricated PE fiber shows oils and organic solvents absorption ability in the range of 22–61 times their weight as well as good reusability in oil/water separation even after ten absorption-desorption repeated cycles by simple squeezing method. Thus, the utilization of PE waste materials provides an extremely low cost and better approach in the fabrication of promising surfaces for oil/water separation applications.
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