Superhydrophobic Fe(3)O(4)/OA Magnetorheological Fluid for Removing Oil Slick from Water Surfaces Effectively and Quickly

[Image: see text] Considering the severe impacts on the economic losses caused by oil spills, it is of great significance to develop an oil-absorbent material for removing the oil slick from the water surface effectively. As a new oil-absorbent material, magnetorheological fluid (MRF) has unsinkability, hydrophobicity, and lipophilicity, which could effectively remove the oil slick on the water surface while repelling water. Particularly, the prepared MRF shows a good response to external magnetic field. MRFs show high oil removal capacity in fresh water, deionized water, and salt water with efficiencies up to 94.39, 93.65, and 92.71%, respectively. Besides, Fe(3)O(4)/OA magnetic nanoparticles (MPs) could be reprepared into MRF by simple treatments. After the fifth cycle, the MRF prepared by the recovered Fe(3)O(4)/OA MPs still has high oil removal efficiency, and that means the Fe(3)O(4)/OA MPs has excellent reusability and stability. The method for preparing MRFs provided in this work is simple and effective, and the MRFs have a promising potential for cleaning oil slick.