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Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water

This paper reports the optimization of a two-step atmospheric pressure plasma process to modify the surface properties of a polyurethane (PU) foam and, specifically, to prepare a superhydrophobic/superoleophilic absorbent for the removal of oils and nonpolar organic solvents from water. In particula...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Uricchio, Antonella, Lasalandra, Teresa, Tamborra, Eliana R. G., Caputo, Gianvito, Mota, Rogério P., Fanelli, Fiorenza
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9693071/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36431434
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15227948
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author Uricchio, Antonella
Lasalandra, Teresa
Tamborra, Eliana R. G.
Caputo, Gianvito
Mota, Rogério P.
Fanelli, Fiorenza
author_facet Uricchio, Antonella
Lasalandra, Teresa
Tamborra, Eliana R. G.
Caputo, Gianvito
Mota, Rogério P.
Fanelli, Fiorenza
author_sort Uricchio, Antonella
collection PubMed
description This paper reports the optimization of a two-step atmospheric pressure plasma process to modify the surface properties of a polyurethane (PU) foam and, specifically, to prepare a superhydrophobic/superoleophilic absorbent for the removal of oils and nonpolar organic solvents from water. In particular, in the first step, an oxygen-containing dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is used to induce the etching/nanotexturing of the foam surfaces; in the second step, an ethylene-containing DBD enables uniform overcoating with a low-surface-energy hydrocarbon polymer film. The combination of surface nanostructuring and low surface energy ultimately leads to simultaneous superhydrophobic and superoleophilic wetting properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and water contact angle measurements are used for the characterization of the samples. The plasma-treated PU foam selectively absorbs various kinds of hydrocarbon-based liquids (i.e., hydrocarbon solvents, mineral oils, motor oil, diesel and gasoline) up to 23 times its own weight, while it completely repels water. These absorption performances are maintained even after 50 absorption/desorption cycles and after immersion in hot water as well as acidic, basic and salt aqueous solutions. The plasma-treated foam can remove mineral oil while floating on the surface of mineral oil/water mixtures with a separation efficiency greater than 99%, which remains unaltered after 20 separation cycles.
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spelling pubmed-96930712022-11-26 Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water Uricchio, Antonella Lasalandra, Teresa Tamborra, Eliana R. G. Caputo, Gianvito Mota, Rogério P. Fanelli, Fiorenza Materials (Basel) Article This paper reports the optimization of a two-step atmospheric pressure plasma process to modify the surface properties of a polyurethane (PU) foam and, specifically, to prepare a superhydrophobic/superoleophilic absorbent for the removal of oils and nonpolar organic solvents from water. In particular, in the first step, an oxygen-containing dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is used to induce the etching/nanotexturing of the foam surfaces; in the second step, an ethylene-containing DBD enables uniform overcoating with a low-surface-energy hydrocarbon polymer film. The combination of surface nanostructuring and low surface energy ultimately leads to simultaneous superhydrophobic and superoleophilic wetting properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and water contact angle measurements are used for the characterization of the samples. The plasma-treated PU foam selectively absorbs various kinds of hydrocarbon-based liquids (i.e., hydrocarbon solvents, mineral oils, motor oil, diesel and gasoline) up to 23 times its own weight, while it completely repels water. These absorption performances are maintained even after 50 absorption/desorption cycles and after immersion in hot water as well as acidic, basic and salt aqueous solutions. The plasma-treated foam can remove mineral oil while floating on the surface of mineral oil/water mixtures with a separation efficiency greater than 99%, which remains unaltered after 20 separation cycles. MDPI 2022-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9693071/ /pubmed/36431434 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15227948 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Uricchio, Antonella
Lasalandra, Teresa
Tamborra, Eliana R. G.
Caputo, Gianvito
Mota, Rogério P.
Fanelli, Fiorenza
Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water
title Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water
title_full Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water
title_fullStr Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water
title_full_unstemmed Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water
title_short Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Treated Polyurethane Foam as Reusable Absorbent for Removal of Oils and Organic Solvents from Water
title_sort atmospheric pressure plasma-treated polyurethane foam as reusable absorbent for removal of oils and organic solvents from water
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9693071/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36431434
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma15227948
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