Nowadays millions of oil tons are spilled into the environment causing important damage. Therefore, the development of new technologies and materials are needed to remediate this problem. In this study, hydroxyethyl cellulose alumina-based aerogels are synthesized by an environmentally friendly freeze-drying process to be used as sorbents for oil spills. It is demonstrated that the oil retention coefficient depends on the viscosity of the oil and the amount of hydroxyethyl cellulose contained in the aerogel, being 10% the optimal proportion. The aerogel synthetized with this content of hydroxyethyl cellulose displays the most favourable physicochemical and morphological properties to retain different oil spills, achieving 5.5 times its weight in comparison to its dry state. In addition, reusability experiments washing the aerogel with acetone or ethanol after the oil retention are carried out. Results show an improvement after a long washing of the sorbent with acetone, resulting in an oil weight gain of 38.7%.

如今，数百万吨油泄漏到环境中，造成了严重破坏。因此，需要开发新技术和新材料来解决这个问题。在这项研究中，羟乙基纤维素氧化铝基气凝胶是通过环保的冷冻干燥工艺合成的，用作溢油的吸附剂。已证明保油系数取决于油的粘度和气凝胶中所含的羟乙基纤维素的量，最佳比例为10％。以此含量的羟乙基纤维素合成的气凝胶显示出最有利的物理化学和形态学特性，可以保留不同的溢油，是其干态重量的5.5倍。此外，保留油后，进行重用性实验，用丙酮或乙醇洗涤气凝胶。结果表明，用丙酮长时间洗涤吸附剂后，油的重量增加了38.7％。