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 Fe3O4nanoparticles 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°. 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.Keywords:sawdust;superhydrophobic;magnetic;oil absorption;emulsion separation