Facile construction of a degradable and renewable superhydrophobic indole-based hemiaminal aerogel for efficient oil–water separation

Design readily available and inexpensive aerogels as potential sorbent materials for oil–water separation is extremely significant because of the increasing discharge of domestic oil pollution. Hereby, a novel superhydrophobic indole-based hemiaminal aerogel (PCINA) without any post-surface treatment was fabricated by a facile, simple and mild method via sol–gel technology followed by freeze-drying. The as-obtained indole-based hemiaminal aerogel exhibited high absorption capacity for varieties of oils and organic solvents. In addition, the separation efficiency of oil–water mixture was as high as 99.8%, even the separation efficiency of emulsion could achieve to 98.2%. More excitingly, the indole-based hemiaminal aerogel PCINA possessed repeatability and regeneration due to the feasible desorption and rapid degradation, suggesting that the green and renewable aerogel was a promising material for the treatment of oil contaminants in different fields. Graphical abstract