Abstract
The devastating effects of oil spills on the ecosystems must be minimized by looking for effective solutions which offer a fast response to them. This work aimed at characterizing the oil-absorption capacity of flexible low-density open-cell foams based on polyolefins with different levels of tortuosity by comparing it to the one displayed by a commercial flexible open-cell polyurethane foam. The results showed that the tortuosity played a critical role in this property, absorbing the open-cell foams with low tortuosity up to 3 times more oil than the ones with high tortuosity. Oil absorptions as considerable as 43 g of oil per gram of foam were obtained, absorbing these foams up to 3.76 times more oil than the open-cell PU foam used as the reference. The hydrophobic character of these foams has also been characterized obtaining negligible water absorptions for the open-cell polyolefin-based materials, showing besides excellent oil–water selectivity. Finally, the reusability of the foams has been analyzed by using two methodologies: mechanical tests at low strain rates and by performing successive oil-absorption tests. The results indicated that open-cell EVA-based foams can be reused at least 50 times, whereas the open-cell LDPE-based foams tended to collapse. This study has proven that open-cell EVA-based foams with low tortuosity can be a potential alternative to be used in oil spill remediation.
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Financial support from DI grant DI-15-07952 (E. Lopez-Gonzalez) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness and MINECO, FEDER, UE (MAT2015-69234-R) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Lopez-Gonzalez, E., Saiz-Arroyo, C. & Rodriguez-Perez, M.A. Low-density open-cell flexible polyolefin foams as efficient materials for oil absorption: influence of tortuosity on oil absorption. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 17, 1663–1674 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-019-02576-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-019-02576-0