Hydrophobic Spongy Attapulgite for Absorption of Organics and Oils from Water

A new strategy of separation and selective absorption of organics or oils from water by using natural clay-derived absorbent was demonstrated in our experiments. Spongy attapulgite (ATP) with mesoporous structure (average pore diameter of 10.75 nm and a BET surface area of 63 m(2) g(-1)) was successfully synthesized by thermolysis of ATP/polymers nanocomposites. Followed by treatment with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the wettability of the spongy ATP can be tailored to be strong hydrophobic to water while superoleophilic to oil, which was also confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Due to its mesoporous structure and excellent hydrophobicity, the as-resulted strong hydrophobic and superoleophilic spongy ATP shows good selectivity and absorption performance for a wide series of organic solvents and oils, which makes it the promising candidate for various applications, including oil spills cleanup, water treatment, liquid-liquid separation and so on.