Removal of organic solvents and oils from wastewater by absorption with crosslinked poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) modified by cetyl alcohol

Abstract

In this first investigation on the oil absorption capacity of poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate), a novel crosslinked poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) based absorbent was prepared by the grafting of maleic anhydride (MA) and cetyl alcohol (CA) in the presence of benzoyl peroxide (BP). Although EVA has been widely used in various applications like drug delivery, encapsulation, and footwear industry, however, its application in environmental remediation has not been studied in detail. In this study, melt mixing was carried out in the Brabender mixture at 120 °C. The grafted polymer was post-cured in the hot air oven at 100 °C for 24 h. The post-cured sorbent showed excellent absorption capacity in toluene (2200 %), gasoline (1720 %), crude oil (1105 %), and kerosene (390 %). The contact angle measurement reveals its hydrophobic nature (123°). The absorption properties of this hydrophobic composite remain stable even after 10 absorption/desorption cycles with absorption capacity remaining constant. The crosslinked polymer was characterized by FTIR, XRD, TGA, and SEM.