Multifunctional hydrophobic bio-based foam toward highly efficient photothermal cleanup of high-viscosity crude oil spills, oil-water separation and aqueous organic pollutant elimination

The environmentally friendly and efficient remediation of crude oil spills is a global challenge due to its high viscosity and low fluidity at room temperature. Herein, we reported a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) modified biomass carbon fibers foam immobilized with Ag2O@Ag nanoparticles via the self-assembly, freeze-drying, carbonization, and hydrophobic modification processes (denoted as PAAC). The resulting PAAC foam exhibited excellent hydrophobicity (water contact angle: 147.8 degrees), high solar absorption capacity and excellent photo thermal conversion property, which enable it to decrease the viscosity of heavy oil and achieve high adsorption capacity of heavy crude oil (60.5 g/g) and great reusable performances under 0.3 sun energy drive. In addition, the PAAC foam showed excellent adsorption capacity to organic solvents and low viscosity oils (11.3-26.4 g/g). Under visible-light irradiation, PAAC foam exhibited remarkable photocatalytic efficiency for removing crystal violet and demonstrated high stability and photocatalytic activity after five consecutive cycles. The proposed design of a solar heated sorbent presents a new potential to explore multifunctional biomass materials to solve environmental pollution problems on a large scale.