Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Magnetic Sawdust as Effective and Recyclable Oil Sorbents

In this paper, a novel superhydrophobic magnetic sawdust (SMSD) was fabricated as an oil sorbent. The SMSD was functionalized with Fe3O4 nanoparticles using melamine formaldehyde resin (MFR) as a coupling agent and subsequently hydrophobically-treated with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS). The SMSD showed excellent superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 155.3 +/- 0.9 degrees. Meanwhile it had remarkable environmental durability, long-term stability, and mechanical durable properties. Taking advantage of its magnetic characteristics, the SMSD could be easily controlled to absorb oil to separate oil-water mixtures with high oil absorption capacity and good reusability. Moreover, the emulsion was successfully separated by SMSD, including water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions. This study developed an effective oil absorbent, which was low cost and environmentally-friendly.