Preparation of Super Hydrophobic Loofah Sponge for Fast and Efficient Separation of Oil from Seawater

Abstract

Pollution due to oil spills is one of the massive threats to the health of marine ecosystems. Often oil spills affect already endangered animals. This pushes them closer and closer to extinction and reduces their chance of surviving. Adding to that, oil contamination can make the water unsuitable for irrigation and drinking purpose. In this work, the fabrication of surface modified loofah sponge is proposed. Loofah sponge which is biodegradable is hydrophilic in nature. Initially the sponge is treated with alkaline to remove the impurities present and characterized using FTIR. Later the foam is made hydrophobic by coating it with modified graphene using dip and dry method. This would show a good stability in oil adsorption. The results are obtained by SEM to check the effectiveness of bonding and also to check the presence of voids. Raman Spectroscopy is used to check the properties of graphene. Oil adsorption by the treated and the untreated sponge are compared. The results showed that the adsorption quantity of treated sponge is twice as untreated sponge which is a clear evidence for the increase in oil adsorption. Thus the hydrophilic sponge can be made super hydrophobic and superoleophilic and can be used for efficient separation of oil from seawater.