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    Highly efficient removal of crude oil and dissolved hydrocarbons from water using superhydrophobic cotton filters

    Year: 2021

    Journal: J. Environ. Chem. Eng., Volume 9, OCT

    Authors: Gkogkou, Despoina; Rizogianni, Sofia; Tziasiou, Charikleia; Gouma, Vasiliki; Pournara, Anastasia D.; Tsoukleris, Dimitrios; Giokas, Dimosthenis L.; Manos, Manolis J.

    Organizations: Patras Science Park (Project: MOFBAG); Region of Epirus [9479.1]

    Keywords: Superhydrophobicity; oil-water separation; Water purification; eco-friendly synthesis

    Superhydrophobic cotton sorbents, reported so far, are prepared via deposition of micro/nanoparticles with superhydrophobicity or covalent grafting of organic polymers on cotton surface. Although such materials have shown high efficiency for capture of floating crude oil from water under static conditions, their use as filters for the removal of crude oil and dissolved hydrocarbons under dynamic conditions has not been demonstrated. Here, we describe novel oil sorbent filters, which are composed of cotton fabrics chemically modified with a superhydrophobic coating based on non-toxic metal ions as binding agents and oleate anions as hydrophobic ligands. The chemical modification procedure is performed through a non-complicated, fast (<1 h), easily scalable and inexpensive aqueous synthetic route. The water contact and sliding angles for the superhydrophobic fabrics were found 152-158and 30respectively. The modified cotton filters were shown to be highly effective in the removal of floating crude oil and dissolved hydrocarbons, both under static and dynamic flow conditions (up to 12 L/h), a feature first time reported. The oil removal capacities achieved were nearly 100% and importantly, the residual concentrations of dissolved hydrocarbons in the treated water were well-below the permissible limits. Overall, the superhydrophobic cotton filters presented here may find applications as stand-alone sorbents for rapidly removing oil spills and dissolved hydrocarbons, representing an environmental-benign alternative to nanomaterial-coated or plastic sorbents that are commonly employed in oil remediation processes.
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