Metallic nanoparticles roughened Calotropis gigantea fiber enables efficient absorption of oils and organic solvents

•Fruit fiber from C. procera is used as starting material to obtain an oil sorbent.•Metallic NPs are coated onto fiber surface via a facile in-situ growth method.•Metallic NPs can roughen fiber surface to create more absorption sites.•NPs-CGF shows higher oil-absorbing capacity and superfast absorption kinetics.•NPs-CGF can selectively collect oil spills as a sustainable and reusable sorbent.