Preparing an ATP/P (n‐BuMA‐St)/Fe3O4 Oil‐Absorbing Resin Composite via a Double Pickering Emulsion Template Method and Elucidation of Its Properties

Abstract

AbstractNumerous methods have been used for preparing porous materials; however, these techniques can not uniformly incorporate inorganic additives into the pore structure. Therefore, a novel method has been presented to fabricate an oil‐absorbing resin composite with three‐dimensional porous structure by using a double Pickering emulsion template. First, an oil‐in‐water‐in‐oil double Pickering emulsion was prepared using attapulgite (ATP) and modified Fe3O4. Second, the Pickering emulsion was employed as a template to synthesize the ATP/P(n‐BuMA‐St)/Fe3O4 oil‐absorbing resin composite by utilizing butyl methacrylate (n‐BuMA) and styrene (St) as comonomers, divinylbenzene as the crosslinking agent, and benzoyl peroxide as the initiator. Finally, the oil absorption performance of the resin composite was explored. The oil absorption ratio of the resin goes up to 754.75 %, while its oil retention rate approximately equals 84 %; when the mass ratio of St and poly (butyl methacrylate) is 2 : 1, the mass percentages of crosslinking agent, initiator, emulsifier, and ATP are observed to be 2 %, 0.4 %, 3 %, and 0.6 %, respectively. Overall, this work provides a novel strategy for preparing an oil‐absorbing composite resin, which is expected to be popularized and utilized for oil spill remediation and oily wastewater treatment.