Shaped cross sectional fibers in oil spillage monitoring: From early stage qualitative detection to onsite quantitative assessment

Super-hydrophobic none woven fabrics (NWFs) made of polypropylene (PP) based fibers and porous fibers with the cross-sectional shapes of round (R p ), tri-lobal (Y p ) and C p shape were prepared and combined with oxygen sensing probes to construct on-line oil spillage monitoring systems. The effects of fiber cross sectional shapes and surface micro-porosity on qualitative response time (RT), signal/noise ratio (SNR) were systematically investigated, for the first time, together with spilled oil viscosity and surfactant content in water. Reliable low detection limit (RLDL) was found decreased from 0.28 to 0.20, 0.12 and 0.10 g/L, respectively, when the fibers were changed from conventional R shape to C shape, C p shape and F-SiO 2 @C p shape. Quantitative determination of oil content in emulsions or floating oil layers were found to be feasible based on the detected linear relationship between ln values of oil content with obtained response time (RT), or between the oil content with obtained signal-noise ration (SNR) values. In time (10–60 s) qualitative responses to early stage very small (spilled area close to 5 cm 2 ) oil spillages and onsite quantitative assessment of ultra-low oil contaminating levels (0.1 g/L) can be realized in a single detection probe for the first time.