title: Toluene diisocyanate based phase-selective supramolecular oil gelator for effective removal of oil spills from polluted water.
abstract: Due to tremendous resource wastes and great harm to ecological environment caused by the accidental oil spills, an alkyl bicarbamate supramolecular oil gelator was synthesized and applied to selectively gelate oils from oil/water mixtures. Interestingly, the oil gelator could be self-assembled in a series of organic solvents, i.e., edible oils and fuel oils to form 3D networks and then turned into thermally reversible organogels, allowing easy separation and removal of oil spills from oil/water mixtures. The possible self-assembly mode for the formation of organogels was proposed. What's more, the optimal conditions for using the oil gelator to recover oils were experimentally determined. Inspiringly, taking gasoline as the co-congealed solvent, a complete gelation of oil phase was achieved within 15 min with high oil removal rate and oil retention rate after convenient salvage and cleanup of oil gels from oil/water mixtures. The oil gelator had some advantages in solidifying oil spills on water surface, exhibiting fast oil gelation, convenient and thorough oil removal and easy recovery. This work illustrates the significant role of oil gelators in the potential cleanup of spilled oils for water purification.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Yongzhen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Center for Composite Materials, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Youshan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA.
authors.forename: Xingru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Songquan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. Electronic address: liuyy@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yuyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL), Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA. Electronic address: zguo10@utk.edu.
authors.forename: Zhanhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry; D009821:Oils / Q000737:chemistry; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D014051:Toluene 2,4-Diisocyanate / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water; D014876:Water Pollution; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005782:Gels; D009821:Oils; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012997:Solvents; D014867:Water; D014051:Toluene 2,4-Diisocyanate
keywords: Alkyl bicarbamate; Phase-selectivity; Spilled-oil cleanup; Supramolecular oil gelator