Abstract
A superhydrophobic fluorinated silica functionalized chitosan (F-CS) aerogel is constructed and fabricated by a simple and sustainable method in this study in order to achieve highly efficient gravity-driven oil/water separation performance. The fluorinated silica functionalization invests the pristine hydrophilic chitosan (CS) aerogel with promising superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 151.9°. This novel F-CS aerogel possesses three-dimensional structure with high porosity as well as good chemical stability and mechanical compression property. Moreover, it also shows striking self-cleaning performance and great oil adsorption capacity. Most importantly, the as-prepared aerogels exhibits fast and efficient separation of oil/water mixture by the gravity driven process with high separation efficiency. These great performances render the prepared F-CS aerogel a good candidate for oil/water separation in practical industrial application.
Highlights
In the wake of rapid developments in the economy and industry, industrial oil wastewater and organic solvents are massively discharged and oil spill accidents frequently occur.The existence of oils and organic pollutants in water leads to a series of environmental and ecological matters, threatening human health and aquatic organisms
In the spectrum of CS, a peak locating at 1655 cm−1 is attributed to the C=O in the amide group and the N=C of imine formed by crosslinking of CS with glutaraldehyde [27,28,29]
The absorptions at 1565 cm−1 and 1420 cm−1 are ascribed to the N-H bending vibration of CS, a peak locating at 1655 cm−1 is attributed to the C=O in the amide group and the N=C of imine formed by crosslinking of CS with glutaraldehyde [27,28,29]
Summary
In the wake of rapid developments in the economy and industry, industrial oil wastewater and organic solvents are massively discharged and oil spill accidents frequently occur. Superhydrophobic surfaces with low cost, easy operation, good recovery with high mechanical strength, excellent oil/water separation ability, and chemical stability are highly required [10]. Among the most studied hydrophobic materials, superhydrophobic aerogels show great advantages in the oil/water separation application. Aerogels have been presumed to be one of the most cutting-edge candidates used in the area of oil/water mixture separation due to their three-dimensional (3D) networks Their high porosity and large specific surface area favor oil absorption and storage. 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrichlorosilane-functionalized silica based coating on printed circuit board showed good superhydrophobicity [20] In this present work, micro/nano-binary hierarchical structures were designed and fabricated using triethoxy-1H,1H,2H,2H-tridecafluoro-n-octylsilane (FAS) modified silica nanoparticles as the superhydrophobic coatings on CS aerogel. The oil absorption and oil/water mixture separation behaviors were determined
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