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Novel robust cellulose-based foam with pH and light dual-response for oil recovery

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Abstract

We fabricated pH and light dual-responsive adsorption materials which could induce the transition of surface wettability between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity by using ATRP. The structure and morphology of adsorption materials were confirmed by ATR-FTIR, XPS, TGA and SEM. It showed that the modified cellulose (CE)-based foam was hydrophobic, which can adsorb a range of oils and organic solvents in water under pH = 7.0 or visible light irradiation (λ > 500 nm). Meanwhile, the wettability of robust CE-based foam can convert hydrophobicity into hydrophilicity and underwater oleophobicity under pH = 3.0 or UV irradiation (λ = 365 nm), giving rise to release oils and organic solvents. Most important of all, the adsorption and desorption processes of the modified CE-based foam could be switched by external stimuli. Furthermore, the modified CE-based foam was not damaged and still retained original performance after reversible cycle repeated for many times with variation of surface wettability. In short, it indicates that CE-based foam materials with switchable surface wettability are new responsive absorbent materials and have owned potential application in the treatment of oil recovery.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported financially by funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21367022 and 51662036) and the Bingtuan Innovation Team in Key Areas (2015BD003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University/Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan/Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region/Engineering Research Center of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, Shihezi, 832003, China

    Qian Wang, Guihua Meng, Jianning Wu, Yixi Wang, Zhiyong Liu & Xuhong Guo

  2. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Xuhong Guo

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  1. Qian Wang
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  2. Guihua Meng
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  3. Jianning Wu
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  4. Yixi Wang
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  5. Zhiyong Liu
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Correspondence to Zhiyong Liu.

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Wang, Q., Meng, G., Wu, J. et al. Novel robust cellulose-based foam with pH and light dual-response for oil recovery. Front. Mater. Sci. 12, 118–128 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-018-0420-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-018-0420-5

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