Cost-effective and recyclable aerogels from cellulose acetate for oil spills clean-up

Cigarette butts are the most known variety of anthropogenic litter on Earth, which consists mainly of cellulose acetate. It can be prepared as aerogel which can be used to remove oil pollution caused by heavy shipping traffic in the Baltic Sea. It is prepared as a solution in acetone which then is poured into water and oven-dried afterwards. The hydrophobicity can be simply improved by wetting with a little amount of oil. Aerogel's sorption capacity, as well as its regeneration for sorption of crude oil, marine diesel oil, and biodiesel sorption from water surface, has been estimated. Their recyclability to fresh samples with re-characterization has been also determined. It has been found that multiple use of cellulose acetate aerogels is not effective because the sorption capacity decreases by up to 80% after a single use. However, the sorption capacity of recycled samples decreases by only 20% on average compared to the samples from the first batch. This capacity could be fully exploited during the life cycle of cellulose acetate.