Aluminum soap nanoparticles-lignin powder form phase-selective gelator as an efficient sorbent for oils/water...

Rapid and efficient recovery of oil spill is the key link for oil spill remediation, and also a great challenge. Here, the organogelator-polymerized porous matrix composed of adsorbents and organogelators can provide a new strategy for solving this problem. The gelling mechanism of aluminum 12-hydroxystearate (Al HSA) to form spherical nano micelles in solvents was investigated via UV-vis, FT-IR, and XRD. A creative method for aluminum soap-lignin gelator (OTS-AL/Al HSA) syntheses was put forward through the saponification of 12-hydroxystearic acid (HSA) and lignin via epichlorohydrin (ECH) crosslinking. By adjusting the ECH content, the growth of Al HSA nanoparticles (15-40 nm) on lignin can be realized, and the accordingly increased roughness endowed gelator with better hydrophobicity (WCA of 134.6°) before octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) modification. Thanks to the porous structures, the gelator powder exhibited a high sorption capacity in the range of 3.5-5.2 g g^-1 for oils and organic solvents. Rheological studies demonstrated high mechanical strength of gels (>1.6 × 10⁵ pa) and the gelator still retained 70% sorption capacity after 6 gelation-distillation cycles. The gelation characteristics of OTS-AL/Al HSA were attributed to the rapid sorption of oils by lignin and the self-assembly of Al HSA nano micelles on lignin to form an aggregated network structure trapping oils, thus realizing the synergistic effect of oil sorption-gelation.