Abstract
Oil spills pose an enormous threat to marine ecosystems and human health, and, thus, arouse widespread concern. Physical adsorption is an effective and environmentally friendly method for remediation of oily wastewater. Finding absorbents with outstanding mechanical robustness, enduring superhydrophobicity, high absorption efficiency, and good regeneration capability remains challenging. In this paper, a hydrophobic composite aerogel (PDMS-Fe-MXene/A-HA) is fabricated using MXene nanosheets as a skeleton, artificial humic acid (A-HA) as a reinforcing phase, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a hydrophobic modifier via an induced self-assembly process with a suitable Fe2+ crosslinking agent. Owing to the strong interaction between A-HA and MXene, the as-prepared PDMS-Fe-MXene/A-HA aerogel exhibits durable hydrophobicity (WCA=135°) and a highly efficient absorption capacity for a variety of hydrophobic organic pollutants (64–121 g g−1). Superelastic mechanical properties and excellent thermal stability endow the hybrid aerogel with good recyclability. The flux value for the PDMS-Fe-MXene/A-HA aerogel for an oil-water combination is determined to be 23478 L h−1 m2. Therefore, the new aerogel offers a viable alternative for successful oil/water separation.
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