Solar and phase change materials co-assisted cleanup of viscous crude oil through cellulose-based aerogel

Crude oil spills in marine ecosystems have been a global environmental problem. Photothermal oil-adsorbing materials have shown enormous potential in cleaning up viscous crude oil spills, yet challenging to achieve efficient adsorption under insufficient light. Herein, a simple Pickering emulsion route was used to encapsulate phase change materials (PCMs) in photothermal cellulose-based aerogels (Pa@SCCA) for efficiently utilizing solar energy and remediating viscous crude oil spills. Pa@SCCA demonstrates excellent shape stability, thermal stability and importantly it shows outstanding hydrophobicity and compressibility due to methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) modification, thus enabling it to selectively adsorb and recover viscous crude oil. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was doped in the Pa@SCCA to allow the efficient conversion from solar energy to heat, and PCMs with thermal-storage ability can continuously reduce the viscosity of crude oil even under insufficient light by releasing thermal energy. Significantly, the preheated Pa@SCCA can remove viscous crude oil spills from cryogenic seawater (10 ℃) without light assistance. The introduction of PCMs improves overall solar energy utilization efficiency and the adsorption capacity for viscous crude oil under unstable light. The coupling of photothermal porous materials with PCMs offers significant advantages over conventional photothermal adsorbents.