Can sponge absorb oil as quickly as water? This is probably the quickest and easiest way to deal with the first oil spill among people. A reporter recently learned from the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that researchers from the Institute have used the properties of nanocellulose and graphene to obtain a new type of super hydrophilic and lipophilic sponge through dip coating. This "parent" sponge will have a good application prospect in the field of oil-water separation, especially in marine oil spills and various types of water resources polluted by oil.
In recent years, the Polymer Composites Research Group of the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has dedicated itself to studying the interaction between nanocellulose and graphene, and a large number of experiments have confirmed that nanocellulose has strong adsorption with two-dimensional graphene sheets. Among them, graphene-based porous materials are usually obtained by methods such as chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical deposition, and freeze drying.
"It is the interaction of these two nanomaterials that effectively promotes the diffusion and surface adsorption of graphene inside the sponge, enabling ordinary sponges to achieve super-parent surface characteristics." Deputy Liu Dongyan, Polymer Composites Research Group, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences The researchers said that this is also the first time that the super-parent polyurethane sponge material obtained directly by dip coating method is "the contact angle is zero, indicating that when water or oil droplets are on the surface of the material, it will quickly spread and absorb. The smaller the contact angle, It means that the material has a stronger absorption capacity. "
It is reported that the new sponge can quickly absorb water and oil, which provides new ideas for the preparation of porous elastic materials and their composites with special wetting properties, and is expected to be applied in the fields of catalyst carriers and intelligent polymer composite materials.