Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic “sponge-like” aerogels for oil/water separation

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Materials Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We report a facile approach to synthesize superhydrophobic and superoleophilic “sponge-like” aerogels through sol–gel reaction followed by supercritical drying, in which MTES and DMDES are used as co-precursors, EtOH as a solvent, CTAB as a surfactant, and HCl and NH3·H2O as catalysts. The MTES–DMDES-based aerogels formed at the optimal molar ratio of MTES: DMDES: EtOH: H2O: HCl: NH3·H2O: CTAB at 1.1: 0.9: 6: 12: 2 × 10−3: 2 × 10−3: 0.14 with a low density of 0.0897 g/cm3 show a compression ratio of 80 % under 36.85 kPa stress. They are superhydrophobic and superoleophilic with a water contact angle of 153.6° and an oil contact angle of 0°. We find that the MTES–DMDES-based aerogels show the high adsorption capacity for various kinds of organic liquids and the excellent recyclability in removing oil from water.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Shannon MA, Bohn PW, Elimelech M, Georgiadis JG, Marinas BJ, Mayes AM (2008) Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades. Nature 452(7185):301–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Zhang Z, Sèbe G, Rentsch D, Zimmermann T, Tingaut P (2014) Ultralightweight and flexible silylated nanocellulose sponges for the selective removal of oil from water. Chem Mater 6(8):5924–5929

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bi H, Huang X, Wu X, Cao X, Tan C, Yin Z, Lu X, Sun L, Zhang H (2014) Carbon microbelt aerogel prepared by waste paper: an efficient and recyclable sorbent for oils and organic solvents. Small 38(2):199–210

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gupta VK, Carrott PJM, Carrott M, Suhas (2009) Low-cost adsorbents: growing approach to wastewater treatment: a review. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol 39(10):783–842

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Rajakovic-Ognjanovic V, Aleksic G, Rajakovic L (2008) Governing factors for motor oil removal from water with different sorption materials. J Hazard Mater 154(1–3):558–563

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu L, Ma W, Zhang Z (2011) Macroscopic carbon nanotube assemblies: preparation, properties, and potential applications. Small 7(11):1504–1520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Radetic M, Ilic V, Radojevic D, Miladinovic R, Jocic D, Jovancic P (2008) Efficiency of recycled wool-based nonwoven material for the removal of oils from water. Chemosphere 70(3):525–530

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Annunciado TR, Sydenstricker THD, Amico SC (2005) Experimental investigation of various vegetable fibers as sorbent materials for oil spills. Mar Pollut Bull 50(11):1340–1346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Zhu Q, Chu Y, Wang ZK, Chen N, Lin L, Liu FT, Pan QM (2013) Robust superhydrophobic polyurethane sponge as a highly reusable oil-absorption material. J Mater Chem A 1(17):5386–5393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Yin S, Niu Z, Chen X (2012) Assembly of graphene sheets into 3D macroscopic structures. Small 8(16):2458–2463

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Rajakovic V, Aleksic G, Radetic M, Rajakovic L (2007) Efficiency of oil removal from real wastewater with different sorbent materials. J Hazard Mater 143(1–2):494–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Rao AV, Kalesh RR, Pajonk G (2003) Hydrophobicity and physical properties of TEOS based silica aerogels using phenyltriethoxysilane as a synthesis component. J Mater Sci 38(21):4407–4413. doi:10.1023/A:1026311905523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Soleimani Dorcheh A, Abbasi M (2008) Silica aerogel; synthesis, properties and characterization. J Mater Process Tech 199(1):10–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Wang D, Xu Z, Chen Z, Liu X, Hou C, Zhang X, Zhang H (2014) Fabrication of single-hole glutathione-responsive degradable hollow silica nanoparticles for drug delivery. ACS Appl Mater Inter 6(15):12600–12608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Gurav JL, Rao AV, Nadargi D, Park H-H (2010) Ambient pressure dried TEOS-based silica aerogels: good absorbents of organic liquids. J Mater Sci 45(2):503–510. doi:10.1007/s10853-009-3968-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Wang D, McLaughlin E, Pfeffer R, Lin YS (2012) Adsorption of oils from pure liquid and oil-water emulsion on hydrophobic silica aerogels. Sep Purif Technol 99:28–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Nadargi DY, Rao AV (2009) Methyltriethoxysilane: new precursor for synthesizing silica aerogels. J Alloy Compd 467(1):397–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Hegde ND, Venkateswara Rao A (2007) Physical properties of methyltrimethoxysilane based elastic silica aerogels prepared by the two-stage sol–gel process. J Mater Sci 42(16):6965–6971. doi:10.1007/s10853-006-1409-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Dong H, Brook MA, Brennan JD (2005) A new route to monolithic methylsilsesquioxanes: gelation behavior of methyltrimethoxysilane and morphology of resulting methylsilsesquioxanes under one-step and two-step processing. ChemMater 17(11):2807–2816

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hayase G, Kanamori K, Nakanishi K (2011) New flexible aerogels and xerogels derived from methyltrimethoxysilane/dimethyldimethoxysilane co-precursors. J Mater Chem 21(43):17077–17079

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Bhagat SD, Oh CS, Kim YH, Ahn YS, Yeo JG (2007) Methyltrimethoxysilane based monolithic silica aerogels via ambient pressure drying. Microporous Mesoporous Mater 100(1–3):350–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Cui S, Liu Y, Fan MH, Cooper AT, Lin BL, Liu XY, Han GF, Shen XD (2011) Temperature dependent microstructure of MTES modified hydrophobic silica aerogels. Mater Lett 65(4):606–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Xue ZX, Cao YZ, Liu N, Feng L, Jiang L (2014) Special wettable materials for oil/water separation. J Mater Chem A 2(8):2445–2460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jiang F, Hsieh Y-L (2014) Amphiphilic superabsorbent cellulose nanofibril aerogels. J Mater Chem A 2:6337–6342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Gui X, Wei J, Wang K, Cao A, Zhu H, Jia Y, Shu Q, Wu D (2009) Carbon nanotube sponges. Adv Mater 22(5):617–621

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Nguyen ST, Feng J, Le NT, Le TAT, Hoang N, Tan VB, Duong HM (2013) Cellulose aerogel from paper waste for crude oil spill cleaning. Ind Eng Chem Res 52(51):18386–18391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Yang Y, Tong Z, Ngai T, Wang C (2014) Nitrogen-rich and fire-resistant carbon aerogels for the removal of oil contaminants from water. ACS Appl Mater Inter 6(9):6351–6360

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (51175444), the Aviation Science Foundation of China (2013ZD68009), New Century Excellent Talents in Fujian Province University (2013), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (2014J01206), and Xiamen Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology (3502Z20143009) is acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Yuxi Yu & Xiaoyun Wu

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Jiyu Fang

Authors
  1. Yuxi Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xiaoyun Wu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jiyu Fang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yuxi Yu or Jiyu Fang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yu, Y., Wu, X. & Fang, J. Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic “sponge-like” aerogels for oil/water separation. J Mater Sci 50, 5115–5124 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9034-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-9034-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation