Superhydrophobic aerogel blanket with magnetic and solar heating effect enables efficient continuous cleanup of highly viscous crude oil

Xueyan Wang; Xianfeng Liu; Zhong Liu; Wenying Cui; Shilong Gao; Jun Zhang; Tingting Fan; Seeram Ramakrishna; Yun-Ze Long

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.130594

Superhydrophobic aerogel blanket with magnetic and solar heating effect enables efficient continuous cleanup of highly viscous crude oil

J Hazard Mater. 2023 Mar 5:445:130594. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.130594. Epub 2022 Dec 14.

Authors

Xueyan Wang¹, Xianfeng Liu¹, Zhong Liu¹, Wenying Cui¹, Shilong Gao¹, Jun Zhang¹, Tingting Fan², Seeram Ramakrishna³, Yun-Ze Long⁴

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterials & Devices, College of Physics, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China.
² Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterials & Devices, College of Physics, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China; Industrial Research Institute of Nonwovens & Technical Textiles, College of Textiles & Clothing, Qingdao University, Qingdao 2266071, China. Electronic address: tingtingfan@qdu.edu.cn.
³ Center for Nanofibers & Nanotechnology, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
⁴ Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterials & Devices, College of Physics, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China; State Key Laboratory of Bio-Fibers and Eco-Textiles (Qingdao University), Qingdao 266071, China. Electronic address: yunze.long@163.com.

PMID: 37055951
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.130594

Abstract

Rapid cleanup of highly-viscous oil spills the sea is eagerly desired while still remains a great challenge. Hydrophobic and lipophilic adsorbents are regarded as ideal candidate for oil spill remediation. However, traditional adsorbents are not suitable for viscous crude oil, which would block the porous structure and lead to poor adsorption efficiency. In this work, a non-contact responsive superhydrophobic SiO₂ aerogel blankets (SAB) with excellent magnetic and solar heating effect for efficient removal of viscosity oils under harsh environments was developed, via assembled MXene and Fe₃O₄/polydimethylsiloxane layer-by-layer along the SAB skeleton (Fe₃O₄/MXene@SAB). The Fe₃O₄/MXene@SAB exhibited excellent compression tolerance (compression stress 70.69 kPa), superhydrophobic performance (water contact angle 166°), and corrosion resistance (weak acid/strong base). Due to high water repellency and stable porous structure, the Fe₃O₄/MXene@SAB could successfully separate oil-water mixture, while with remarkable separation flux (1.50-3.19 × 10⁴ L m^-2 h^-1), and separation efficiency (99.91-99.98 %). Furthermore, the responsive Fe₃O₄/MXene@SAB also showed outstanding magnetic-heating and solar-heating conversion efficiency, which could continuously separate high viscosity crude oil from seawater by pump even under relatively low magnetic fields and mild sun. The superhydrophobic blankets hold great promise for efficient treatment of heavy oil spills.

Keywords: Crude oil; Magnetocaloric; Photothermal; SiO(2) aerogel blankets; Superhydrophobic property.