Evaluation of Hydrophobic Polyurethane Foam as Sorbent Material for Oil Spill Recovery

In this work, hydrophobic polyurethane foam was prepared using hy-drosilicone oil-grafted polybutadiene as soft segment via foaming technology. It was found that the hydrophobic polyurethane foams exhibited good hydrophobic capability and were regenerated easily. Of great interest, the hydrophobic polyurethane foams expand in contact with the oils. This indicates that the process of sorption by the hydrophobic polyurethane foams involves both the filling of the pores with oils and the absorption of oils by the polymer regions (polyurethane elastomer skeleton), and the adsorption capacity of the hydrophobic polyurethane foams can be enhanced by the swelling of the polyurethane elastomer skeleton. We can use this finding to improve the adsorption capacity of the hydrophobic polyurethane foams without merely changing the porosity. The effect of the swelling property of the hydrophobic polyurethane foams on the sorption capacity was further investigated. The results suggest that the hydrophobic polyurethane foams are promising in the application of oil spill recovery.