Superhydrophobic polyaniline absorbent for solar-assisted adsorption of highly viscous crude oil

The effective removal and recovery of viscous crude oil continue to be an intractable concern, owing to the poor fluidity of viscous crude oil at normal temperature. When frequently used in oil remediation, traditional adsorption materials typically exhibit low absorption efficiency and easily destructible superhydrophobic surfaces. In this work, we constructed a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/polyaniline (PANI)-modified melamine sponge (MS) with a robust superhydrophobic coating by simple polymerization and dip coating. The unique PANI coating endows PDMS/PANI@MS with superior photothermal conversion efficiency and allows the surface equilibrium temperature to quickly rise to 81.8 degrees C within 2 min under the irradiation of 1 standard sunlight (1 kW/m(2)). The efficient photothermal conversion allows the absorbent sponge to significantly reduce oil viscosity and facilitate absorption, thus demonstrating an absorption capacity of 11.68 x 10(5) g/m(3), which is superior to those of absorbents reported previously. The excellent reusability conferred by the modified sponge, on the basis of the stable surface structure and good elasticity, demonstrates its potential for application in the remediation of viscous crude oil spills.