Fabrication of Environmental-Friendly Magnetite Nanoparticle Surface Coatings for the Efficient Collection of Oil Spill

Over the past few decades, there has been an increased trend for the use of natural compounds and their derivatives as alternatives to traditional chemicals and is due to their renewability, green character, and wide availability. This work aims to convert sodium alginate (S.ALG), a natural polysaccharide, into amides through its conversion to alginic acid (H.ALG). The formed H.ALG was esterified using methanol, followed by a reaction with octadecylamine (OA) and dodecylamine (DA) to produce corresponding amides, OA-ALG, and DA-ALG, respectively. The synthesized OA-ALG and DA-ALG were used as capping agents to further form hydrophobic magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs), OA-MNPs and DA-MNPs, respectively. The chemical structures, morphology, hydrophobicity, and magnetic properties of OA-MNPs and DA-MNPs were investigated using different instrumental techniques. Furthermore, the efficacy of as-synthesized MNPs as oil spill collectors were also evaluated using different ratios of MNPs:crude oil. From the analysis of results, the OA-MNPs and DA-MNPs exhibited high efficiency in the collection of oil spill even at low ratios of MNPs:crude oil.