Efficient adsorption of oil by hydrophobic macroporous polymer synthesized with the emulsion template and magnetic particles on the surface

Fast development of oil industry and cargo distribution make accidental oil spills more possible in the course of transportation. Here we fabricated a hydrophobic macroporous phenol resin poly high internal phase emulsions (poly-HIPEs) to adsorb oil pollution. To improve hydrophobic property and adsorption ability of the poly-HIPEs, we adopted a facile way to modify the poly-HIPEs that Fe3O4 nanoparticles act as magnetic particles to make the poly-HIPEs magnetic and 1-dodecanethiol as hydrophobic monomer grafted to the surface to strengthen the hydrophobicity with dopamine as the adhesive. As a result, we succeed in making the poly-HIPEs superhydrophobic and their contact angle transforms from 107 degrees to 150 degrees. After the oil adsorption experiment, the adsorption capacity of the modified poly-HIPEs is obviously better than the original poly-HIPEs which is about ten times than original weight of material, what's more, the final products also have good recycle ability after ten times' employing, which makes it a promising candidate material for use in oil-spill cleanups. (c) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 44731.