Preparation and oil/water separation performance of photothermal-responsive superhydrophobic sponge

Marine oil spills have caused serious global environmental and resource waste problems. High-viscosity crude oil, due to its poor fluidity and difficult processing, faces many challenges in governance. Current cleaning methods, such as chemical dispersion, in-situ combustion and microbial degradation, have limitations such as low recovery rate, secondary pollution and time-consuming. To address these challenges, a photothermal responsive superhydrophobic modified sponge was prepared, by introducing hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS), graphene oxide (GO), and polydopamine (PDA) onto melamine sponge (MS) using a simple impregnation method. The modified sponge has the characteristics of rapid adsorption, high capacity (43.4-94.3 g/g), and reusability. Under simulated sunlight irradiation, the modified sponge rapidly heated to 89.8℃ within 1 minute, demonstrating excellent photothermal conversion performance and good adsorption effect on high viscosity dimethyl silicone oil, with an adsorption rate of 0.66 g/min under experimental conditions. This simple preparation of photothermal responsive sponge provides an efficient and convenient solution for cleaning high-viscosity oil spills.