Hierarchically porous sponge for oily water treatment: Facile fabrication by combination of particulate templates and thermally induced phase separation method

Guowei Wang; Lusha Peng; Bin Yu; Shiguo Chen; Zaochuan Ge; Hiroshi Uyama

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol.62, 192-196, June, 2018

DOI10.1016/j.jiec.2017.12.057 Export Citation

Hierarchically porous sponge for oily water treatment: Facile fabrication by combination of particulate templates and thermally induced phase separation method

Guowei Wang^{1, 2}, Lusha Peng³, Bin Yu², Shiguo Chen^{1, †}, Zaochuan Ge^{1, †}, and Hiroshi Uyama⁴

¹Nanshan District Key Lab for Biopolymers and Safety Evaluation, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, PR China
²Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, PR China
³Mitsubishi Electric Cooperation Fukuyama Works, Fukuyama 720-8647, Japan
⁴Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita 565-0871, Japan

E-mail:,

A polypropylene sponge with hierarchical structure was prepared from a polypropylene solution by combination of micro particle template and the phase separation technique. A simple procedure was proved to be able to fabricate a unique sponge in which both submillimeter-sized holes (≈200 μm) and small macrospores (≈10 μm) are formed. The unique structure was successfully confirmed by scanning electron microscopy measurement. In addition, the sponge showed low density, high hydrophobicity, and superoleophilicity. The sponge exhibited good compressibility, and high performance for the adsorption-release of oils. The adsorbability was proved to be improved in a large scale due to the existence of holes. Furthermore, the sponge demonstrated the ability to remove oil-in-water emulsion. Based on the properties, the present sponge has promising prospects for environmental applications in the treatment of oily water.

Keywords:Polypropylene;Thermally-induced phase separation;Sponge;Oil-in-water emulsion;Environmental treatment

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[8] Fujita I, Yoshie M, Sea Technol., 47, 49 (2006)

[9] Kujawinski EB, Soule MCK, Valentine DL, Boysen AK, Longnecker K, Redmond MC, Environ. Sci. Technol., 45, 1298 (2001)

[10] Lessard RR, Demarco G, Spill B, Sci. Technol., 6, 59 (2000)

[11] Ruan C, Ai K, Li X, Lu L, Angew. Chem.-Int. Edit., 53, 5556 (2014)

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[13] Wang G, He Y, Wang H, Zhang L, Yu QY, Peng SS, Wu XD, Ren TH, Zeng ZX, Xue QJ, Green Chem., 17, 3093 (2015)

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[21] Wu ZY, Li C, Liang HW, Chen JF, Yu SH, Angew. Chem.-Int. Edit., 52, 2925 (2013)

[22] Chen L, Du R, Zhang J, Yi T, J. Mater. Chem. A, 3, 20547 (2015)

[23] Gui X, Li H, Wang K, Wei J, Jia Y, Li Z, Fan L, Cao A, Zhu H, Wu D, Acta Mater., 59, 4798 (2011)

[24] Gui XC, Wei JQ, Wang KL, Cao AY, Zhu HW, Jia Y, Shu QK, Wu DH, Adv. Mater., 22(5), 617 (2010)

[25] Pakdel A, Zhi C, Bando Y, Nakayama T, Golberg D, ACS Nano, 5, 6507 (2011)

[26] Nguyen DD, Tai NH, Lee SB, Kuo WS, Energy Environ. Sci., 5, 7908 (2012)

[27] Sun HY, Xu Z, Gao C, Adv. Mater., 25(18), 2554 (2013)

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[34] Wang GW, Uyama H, Sci. Rep., 6, 21265 (2016)