Bioinspired melt-blown fiber felt with flame retardancy for efficient oil spill remediation by solar-driven oil evaporation and adsorption

Confronted with rapid-spread river oil leaks and marine oil spills containing toxic and light fractions, conventional emergency response measures often fall short. This study proposes a solar-driven oil evaporation and adsorption (SOEA) strategy that efficiently addresses the challenges posed by toxic and light oils in rivers and oceans. Inspired by the self-protection and anti-fouling effects of fish scales, a photothermal oil-adsorbing felt with a biomimetic scale structure for efficient SEOA is constructed by decorating functional components onto the melt-blown fiber felt using scalable spraying technology. The rational integration of a dual-layer scale structure and functional constituents imparts stable superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, flame retardancy, enhanced mechanical strength, and a higher oil adsorption capacity. Benefiting from the superior photothermal conversion, the solar-vapor conversion efficiency of the resulting P-EG/MXene@PP reaches 85.6 % under 1 sunlight, with an evaporation rate for light oil of 13.17 kg/m2/h, 8 times higher than natural volatilization. For crude oil floating on water, it achieves a 98 % oil removal efficiency in 6 h, with 41 wt% of the light fraction evaporated. This research provides distinctive insights into solar-driven oil spill remediation behavior and pioneers the SOEA strategy, offering rapid, efficient, and safe solutions for intricate oil spill scenarios.