Abstract
Marine pollution due to spillage of hydrocarbons represents a well-known current environmental problem. In order to recover the otherwise wasted oils and to prevent pollution damage, polyurethane foams are considered suitable materials for their ability to separate oils from sea-water and for their reusability. In this work we studied polyurethane foams filled with carbon nanofibers, in varying amounts, aimed at enhancing the selectivity of the material towards the oils and at improving the mechanical durability of the foam. Polyurethane-based foams were experimentally characterized by morphological, surface, and mechanical analyses (optical microscopy observation, contact angle measurement, absorption test according to ASTM F726-99 standard and compression fatigue tests according to ISO 24999 standard). Results indicated an increase in hydrophobic behavior and a good oleophilic character of the composite sponges besides an improved selective absorption of the foam toward oils in mixed water/oil media. The optimal filler amount was found to be around 1 wt% for the homogeneous distribution inside the polymeric foam. Finally, the fatigue test results showed an improvement of the mechanical properties of the foam with the growing carbon filler amount.
Highlights
In recent years a problem which has attracted more and more attention has been hydrocarbon spillage into sea-water
In this paper we studied polyurethane sponges grafted with hydrophobic carbon nanofibers, synthesized for the selective recovery of oil from water
In this work we have studied nanocomposite foams, polyurethane-based, prepared with a cheap carbonaceous filler (CNF) and with a facile synthetic route
Summary
In recent years a problem which has attracted more and more attention has been hydrocarbon spillage into sea-water. A porous polymeric composite is considered as an effective adsorption material because it is easy to prepare and to recycle, it has a satisfactory adsorption capacity and a good oil selectivity after opportune tuning of hydrophobic and hydrophilic chemical structure of Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 735. Recent studies were focused on the surface modification of the polyurethane sponges: the goal was to achieve hydrophobic surfaces so that the oil absorption capacity during the oil/water separation process would increase. The synthesized CNF grafted PU showed excellent performance in separating non-polar organic contaminants and oil from water in both static and dynamic conditions showing a good mechanical stability. In this paper we studied polyurethane sponges grafted with hydrophobic carbon nanofibers, synthesized for the selective recovery of oil from water. In the field of oil recovery, the literature is lacking on dynamic evaluations [45]
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