Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Magnetic Sawdust as Effective and Recyclable Oil Sorbents

Abstract

In this paper, a novel superhydrophobic magnetic sawdust (SMSD) was fabricated as an oil sorbent. The SMSD was functionalized with Fe3O4 nanoparticles using melamine formaldehyde resin (MFR) as a coupling agent and subsequently hydrophobically-treated with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS). The SMSD showed excellent superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 155.3 ± 0.9°. Meanwhile it had remarkable environmental durability, long-term stability, and mechanical durable properties. Taking advantage of its magnetic characteristics, the SMSD could be easily controlled to absorb oil to separate oil−water mixtures with high oil absorption capacity and good reusability. Moreover, the emulsion was successfully separated by SMSD, including water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions. This study developed an effective oil absorbent, which was low cost and environmentally-friendly.

Keywords

• sawdust
• superhydrophobic
• magnetic
• oil absorption
• emulsion separation