A Robust Absorbent Material Based on Light-Responsive Superhydrophobic Melamine Sponge for Oil Recovery

作者：Zhu, Haiguang; Yang, Shun; Chen, Dongyun^*; Li, Najun; Xu, Qingfeng; Li, Hua; He, Jinghui; Lu, Jianmei^*

来源：Advanced Materials Interfaces, 2016, 3(5): 1500683.

DOI：10.1002/admi.201500683

• absorbent materials
• light-responsive materials
• oil recovery
• superhydrophobic

Advanced materials with intelligent switchable surfaces that can respond to external stimuli have encouraging application in oil/water separation and oil clean-up. Herein, a facile method has been demonstrated to prepare a robust and superhydrophobic sponge by integrating the melamine-formaldehyde (MF) sponge with light-responsive spiropyran derivative via a radical copolymerization process, which shows the light-controllable oil absorption and desorption property under light illumination. The key chemistry is that the MF sponge is first modified with vinyl for the copolymerization via a facile solution-immersion process. Afterward, light-responsive spiropyran methacrylate monomers are copolymerized with vinyl-modified MF sponges to fabricate polymer-MF sponge composites (denoted as SP-MF sponge), resulting in the wettability conversion from amphiphilic to superhydrophobic with a water contact angle of 155.5 degrees. The superhydrophobic MF sponge shows excellent selectivity and high absorption capacity for a range of oils and organic solvents from 70 to 154 times its own weight. More importantly, since the hydrophobic polymer of the SP-MF sponge can be converted to hydrophilic under UV illumination, the wettability of SP-MF sponge will change to hydrophilic, resulting in the light-controlled oil desorption process. These findings offer a new responsive absorbent material and a new approach for oil recovery.

• 出版日期2016-3-7
• 单位苏州大学