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Hydrophobic porous BN/SiO2@PU as ternary adsorbents for efficient oil/water separation

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Abstract

Developing efficient sorbent materials is of worldwide importance to protect the environment against frequent oil spills and chemical leakage accidents. A simple and low-cost process was adopted to prepare hydroxylated BN bonded with SiO2 sol and then embed BN/SiO2 on polyurethane (PU) foam(BN/SiO2@PU) via dip-coating. BN/SiO2@PU could float on water due to its hydrophobicity. Absorption tests were performed to test its performance using various organic solvents or oil. Comparing with BN/SiO2 aerogel, BN@PU and SiO2@PU, BN/SiO2@PU had a high absorption rate and a high absorption capacity for both organic solvents and oil, and could absorb as much as 40 times its weight. It was also able to selectively absorb oil or organic solvents from an oil–water mixture with separation efficiency higher than 95% and had good recyclability of 20 absorption cycles even towards commercial waste oil. Furthermore, BN/SiO2@PU with high temperature stability can be used under harsh condition. The performance of the prepared adsobent reported is competitive and superior to other reported materials, confirming its potential application in water treatment.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Opening Project of Henan Province Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Rehabilitation Technology (CJSZ2018002), Special Fund of Jiangsu Province for the Transformation of Science and Technology and Achievements in Transport (2018Y29).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Ebenezer Kobina Sam, Daniel Kobina Sam & Xiaomeng Lv

  2. School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Chen & Jun Liu

  3. Henan Province Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Rehabilitation Technology, Pingdingshan, Henan, 467036, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaomeng Lv

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  1. Ebenezer Kobina Sam
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Sam, E.K., Sam, D.K., Chen, J. et al. Hydrophobic porous BN/SiO2@PU as ternary adsorbents for efficient oil/water separation. J Porous Mater 27, 1149–1158 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-020-00892-2

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