Template-free synthesis of polystyrene monoliths for the removal of oil-in-water emulsion

Guowei Wang; Bin Yu; Shiguo Chen; Hiroshi Uyama

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-06572-7

Template-free synthesis of polystyrene monoliths for the removal of oil-in-water emulsion

Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 26;7(1):6534. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-06572-7.

Authors

Guowei Wang^{1

2

3}, Bin Yu², Shiguo Chen⁴, Hiroshi Uyama³

Affiliations

¹ Nanshan District Key Lab for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, P.R. China.
² Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, P.R. China.
³ Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, 565-0871, Japan.
⁴ Nanshan District Key Lab for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, P.R. China. csg@szu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Oil-in-water emulsions are harmful to both humankind and environment. Frequent oil spill disasters make it urgent to develop low cost and high-efficiency materials for the treatment of oil-in-water emulsions. In this study, we report the facile template-free synthesis of macroporous polystyrene (PS) monolith from PS solution using a thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) technique. The fabricated monolith showed high hydrophobicity, superoleophilicity, and macroporous structure. Moreover, the monolith exhibited high removal efficiency toward different oil-in-water emulsions. The monolith can be fabricated from cheap and commonly-used plastic. Thus, we anticipate that this research will contribute to both the recycling of PS and the treatment of oil spill accidents.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't