Hydrophobic Magnetic Porous Material of Eichhornia crassipes for Highly Efficient Oil Adsorption and Separation

Abstract

Many oil adsorption materials are composed of nonrenewable raw materials, and their disposal can increase resource consumption and cause new environmental pollution. In this paper, the carbonized Eichhornia crassipes (CEC) were immobilized with Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and modified with 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (PFOS) to prepare an oil adsorption material, referred to here as CEC/Fe3O4/PFOS. The magnetic and mechanical strength of the CEC was enhanced by adding Fe3O4 magnetic particles, which enable it efficient to dispose the oil/water solution. CEC/Fe3O4/PFOS shows high porosity (83.53%), low skeletal density (0.487 g/cm3), excellent magnetism, ultrahigh oil absorption capacity (49.94-140.90 g/g), hydrophobic performances with a water contact angle of 150.1 ± 2.3°, and a sliding angle of 10.5°. It is worth noting that the material can be recycled, and the absorbed oil is obtained by distillation. Therefore, this work may provide a candidate for solving the problem of oil pollution using E. crassipes.