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    Superhydrophobic/superoleophilic natural fibres for continuous oil-water separation and interfacial dye-adsorption

    Year: 2020

    Journal: Sep. Purif. Technol., Volume 233, FEB 15

    Authors: Nine, Md J.; Kabiri, Shervin; Sumona, Achia K.; Tung, Tran T.; Moussa, Mahmoud M.; Losic, Dusan

    Organizations: Australian Research CouncilAustralian Research Council [IH 150100003]

    Keywords: Biowaste; Microfibres; Superoleophilicity; Separation; Adsorption

    The inconsistent wettability of biological superwetting materials, due to aging, morphological change, structural fragility and biodegradation, limit their practical use for highly demanding applications such as oil-water separation and dye adsorption. Herein, we present a new source of superwetting materials harvested from waste chestnut-shell. The material is in the form of micro-fibres which are intrinsically oleophilic/hydrophobic, chemically stable, lightweight and structurally robust. The harvested microfibres, laying between inner-liner and outer shell of the chestnut, are naturally enriched with aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon that results in their high oleophilicity. We demonstrated that these superoleophilic fibre-networks could be used as oil-absorbent exhibiting outstanding absorption efficiency with a maximum capacity of similar to 94% of their own weight. Afterwards, an efficient filtration membrane was engineered using these micro-fibres showing their ability for continuous oil-water separation process for a series of organic solvents (toluene, canola oil, engine oil, hexane, turpentine oil, petrol and olive oil) co-existing with water. Furthermore, the fibres were realized to be capable of adsorbing organic dyes at oil-water interfaces in both static (slow adsorption) and dynamic (instant adsorption) condition suggesting their multifunctionality in wastewater treatments. A small amount of fibres (0.75 g/L) could efficiently remove water miscible dyes of lthodamine-B and Methylene blue with a maximum removal efficiency of 88% and similar to 91%, respectively. These low-cost natural fibres from biowaste with outstanding oil-water separation and organic dye-adsorption capacity have considerable advantages compared to other low-cost materials reported earlier for industrial wastewater-treatment and environmental remediation.
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