Facile Fabrication of Photo-magneto-thermal Assisted Nanofibrous Aerogel for All-Weather Continuous Cleanup of Viscous Crude Oil Spills
摘要
Hydrophobic/oleophilic nanofiber aerogels (NFAs) are ideal materials for remediation of oil spills. However, their application for removal of viscous crude oil remains a big challenge. Herein, an all-weather-available NFA, with outstanding photo-magneto-thermal conversion capacities for efficient recovery of high-viscosity oils, was developed via a facile strategy of assembling Fe3O4 nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) along the PAN/PBA NFA skeleton. Benefiting from its hierarchical porous structure, excellent hydrophobicity, and high mechanical stability, the resultant PDMS–Fe3O4@PAN/PBA NFA showed high oil absorption capacities and reusability for various low-viscosity oils/organic solvents. Taking advantage of the photo-magneto-thermal conversion of Fe3O4 nanoparticles, the temperature of composite NFA surface could rapidly reach up to 84.2 °C under solar illumination of 1 kW m−2 and 89.4 °C under the influence of an alternating magnetic field of 7 kA m−1. Noteworthily, PDMS–Fe3O4@PAN/PBA NFA could continuously clean up crude oil with the assistance of pumping force, achieving a high recovery rate of 6.51*103 kg m−3 h−1 under the synergistic effect of photo-magnetic heating. Considering their facile method of preparation and excellent comprehensive properties, the composite NFAs have great prospects for remediation of crude oil spills.