Development of “green” oil sorbents with features such as high sorption capacity, eco-friendliness, and reusability is of great significance because frequent oil spill incidents have caused severe environmental concerns. In this study, zein, a natural protein extracted from corn, is introduced to be an attractive candidate as oil sorbent for the first time. However, the zein film has poor mechanical properties, which limits the broad application in reality. In this work, Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) is introduced into zein fibers to produce oil sorbents with improved mechanical properties using bicomponent electrospinning. The new hierarchical structure of zein/PVDF fibers with helical ribbon morphology are reported. The formation mechanisms of ribbon fibers and helical fibers are involved in the explanation of the generation of this new hierarchical structure. This study demonstrates that macro-/nano-materials based on the natural proteins such as zein are promising materials for developing “green” oil sorbents.

开发具有高吸附能力，生态友好和可重复使用性等特征的“绿色”油吸附剂具有重要意义，因为频繁发生的溢油事故已引起严重的环境问题。在这项研究中，玉米醇溶蛋白，一种从玉米中提取的天然蛋白质，首次被引入作为油吸附剂的有吸引力的候选物。然而，玉米蛋白膜的机械性能较差，这限制了其在现实中的广泛应用。在这项工作中，将聚偏二氟乙烯（PVDF）引入玉米醇溶蛋白纤维中，以使用双组分静电纺丝技术生产具有改善的机械性能的吸油剂。报道了具有螺旋带状形态的玉米蛋白/ PVDF纤维的新的分层结构。带状纤维和螺旋形纤维的形成机理与这种新的分层结构的产生有关。这项研究表明，基于天然蛋白质（例如玉米蛋白）的大分子/纳米材料是开发“绿色”油吸附剂的有前途的材料。