Application of Textile Composite Materials as a Sorbent for Cleaning Up Oil Spills

This article compares two new textile materials used to clean up spills of oil or two oil products (crude oil, diesel fuel, and base oil SN 150). The plain-woven cotton fabric is hydrophilic, with a typical porous structure. After coating with a layer of chitosan modified with benzaldehyde and cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (CB), its hydrophobicity increases, hence the sorption affinity to hydrophobic hydrocarbons. Including in situ synthesized zinc oxide particles in the hydrophobic chitosan layer (CBZ) changes its structure and increases the sorption capacity. The morphology of the layers was assessed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by comparing the contact angles of the pollutants against the cotton fabric and the composite materials. EDX analysis and mapping for the Zn element show that zinc is homogeneously distributed on the fabric surface. The roughness enhancement and mesoporous structure under the influence of zinc oxide particles were established by the Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) method and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The advantages of textile composites are their flexibility, stability, and ability to float on the water and wipe up oil spills. It was found that the materials can be successfully regenerated and used repeatedly, making them highly effective because the sorbed crude oil or petroleum products can be separated and utilized.