Preparation and properties of a silver particle-coated and 1-dodecanethiol-modified superhydrophobic melamine sponge for oil/water separation

Abstract

A Ag particle-coated and 1-dodecanethiol-modified melamine sponge (Ag-DDT-MS) was prepared through surface roughness by coating silver particles and subsequent grafting of a hydrophobic long hydrocarbon chain. Superhydrophobic and 3D porous Ag-DDT-MS was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The water contact angle of Ag-DDT-MS reached 159.2°. Ag-DDT-MS exhibited excellent absorption capacity for high viscous oils and organic solvents, ranging from 42.8 to 105.2 g∙g⁻¹. The absorbed oils can be easily collected by the mechanical pressing process, and the oil recovery rate was satisfactory, more than 90% after 20 recycles. Ag-DDT-MS material also demonstrated good stability and excellent compression-recovery ability, keeping 88.6% of the initial height after ten compression-release cycles.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

melamine sponge / oil-absorbing material / hydrophobic / oil-water separation / oil absorption capacity

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Acknowledgments

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21777143 and 22078296) is appreciated as financial support.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2140-8 and is accessible for authorized users.

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