Abstract
AbstractCrude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic environments. Inexpensive and sustainable sorbents are needed to mitigate the ecological harm of this pollution. To address this need, this study features a low‐density polysulfide polymer that is prepared by the direct reaction of sulfur and used cooking oils. Because both sulfur and cooking oils are hydrophobic, the polymer has an affinity for hydrocarbons such as crude oil and diesel fuel and can rapidly remove them from seawater. Through simple mechanical compression, the oil can be recovered and the polymer can be reused in oil spill remediation. The polysulfide is unique because it is prepared entirely from repurposed waste: sulfur is a by‐product of the petroleum industry and used cooking oil can be used as a comonomer. In this way, sulfur waste from the oil industry is used to make an effective sorbent for combatting pollution from that same sector.
Highlights
Crude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic envithreaten both terrestrial and aquatic ecosysronments
Materials are not economically viable on the scale required for many remediation needs and most commercial sorbents are made from nonrenewable polypropylene fibers[10] or polyurethane foams.[8d] while natural biomass and fibrous vegetation have been investigated as low-cost and sustainable sorbents,[11] these typically suffer from low buoyancy, high water sorption, or limited means by which to recover the oil
In this report we introduce a new class of oil sorbents that is low-cost, scalable, and enable the efficient removal and recovery of oil from water
Summary
Crude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic envithreaten both terrestrial and aquatic ecosysronments. The porous canola oil polysulfide was first prepared using either pristine, food-grade canola oil, or used unsaturated cooking oils obtained directly from a restaurant (Figures S1–S9, Supporting Information). Used cooking oil (Figures S12–S15, Supporting Information).
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