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Recent Advances in Tree Gum Polymers for Food, Energy, and Environmental Domains
Published in Anandhan Srinivasan, Selvakumar Murugesan, Arunjunai Raj Mahendran, Progress in Polymer Research for Biomedical, Energy and Specialty Applications, 2023
K. P. Akshay Kumar, Miroslav Černík, Vinod V. T. Padil
Many natural or synthetic-based sponges have been utilized for environmental pollution remediation, such as oil cleaning from water, absorption of toxic dyes or organic pollutants, and toxic metal removal from water. Many places in the universe have severe environmental and ecological problems created due to oil spillage or pollution. Several methods such as biodegradation, burning, mechanical collection, and chemical treatment are some of the most common techniques employed. However, the permanent and safe way of cleaning the oil or organic pollutants removal is still a highly global problem. Efficient cleaning of oil pollutants from water, mechanically robust, and environmentally friendly materials with high selectivity for oil and porous materials are required. Natural-based polymers sponges also have certain disadvantages such as low mechanical strength, hydrophilicity, brittleness, etc. To overcome these, chemical modification or surface functionalization with certain groups or molecules can enhance sponges' overall functionality.
Facile fabrication of asphaltene-derived graphene-polyurethane sponges for efficient and selective oil-water separation
Published in Journal of Dispersion Science and Technology, 2018
Pinhui Zhao, Lizhi Wang, Ruibo Ren, Ling Han, Fei Bi, Zeyu Zhang, Kechao Han, Gu Weifeng
Commercially available sponges include polyurethane (PU) sponges,[15] poly(vinyl alcohol)-formaldehyde (PVF) sponges[16] and melamine-formaldegyde (MF) sponges.[1] As a kind of 3D porous material they have been used for fabricating hydrophobic absorbents aimed at oil-water separation. Among them, PU sponges have been widely used in the production of superhydrophobic adsorbents for oil-water separation because of the low cost of the raw materials. However, PU sponge are mainly composed of carboxyl and amino groups, in which the hydrophilicity of its surface is a major problem in preparation.[17]