Ultrasoft gelatin aerogels for oil contaminant removal

We demonstrated preparation of a novel aerogel simply by crosslinking a gelatin physical gel with formaldehyde (cGel) and a subsequent freeze-drying procedure. A hydrophobic absorbent material (MTCS-cGel aerogel) was further obtained by a thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methyltrichlorosilane (MTCS). Rheological tests were carried out to investigate the crosslinking between gelatin and formaldehyde. Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDX) and wettability of oil and water results proved successful silanization occurred on/in the aerogels. These results also indicated that MTCS-cGels owned low densities (5~8 kg/m3), high porosities (> 95%) with uniform pore sizes and unique laminar/fibrous 3D networks. The oleophilic aerogels possessed high oil absorption capacities of 70-123 times of their dry weights. Furthermore, the absorbents exhibited excellect elasticity and ultrasoftness with a stress of only 2.0 kPa at 60% strain. This property endowed the aerogel super-recyclability that 83-85% of its full absorption capacity was maintained after 5000 times of compression. The high oil absorption performance, super-recyclability, sustainability, biodegradability and cost-efficiency made this novel absorbent a promising candidate for large scale oceanic oil contaminant removal.
[来源：中国聚合物网]