Effect of the porous structure of polymer foams on the remediation of oil spills

Abstract

Current approaches for the remediation of oil spills propose the utilization of functionalized polymeric foams as efficient oil absorbents. However, for the majority of the materials employed, the studies are focused on sophisticated surface treatments while the significant role of the morphological parameters of the porous structure of the pristine foams remains unexplored. Herein, we prove that the structural parameters of the pores of the polymeric foams play a fundamental role for the efficient removal of oil from water. The presented experimental and theoretical study shows that pristine polyurethane foams with highly interconnected open porous structures, and pore sizes below 500 μm are able to reach oil absorption capacities as high as 30 gr of oil per gr of polyurethane. Chemical functionalization of the porous structure does not increase further the oil absorption efficiency but it significantly contributes to the increase of the selectivity of the process. The current findings demonstrate the importance of the right choice of the pristine foams for the fabrication of cost-effective absorbents with high water-oil separation performance.