Solar-assisted high-efficient cleanup of viscous crude oil spill using an ink-modified plant fiber sponge

Rapid and efficient clean-up of viscous crude oil spills is still a global challenge due to its high viscous and poor flowability at room temperature. The hydrophobic/oleophilic absorbents with three-dimensional porous structure have been considered as a promising candidate to handle oil spills. However, they still have limited application in recovering the high viscous oil. Inspired by the viscosity of crude oil depended on the temperature, a solar-heated ink modified plant fiber sponge ([email protected]) is fabricated via a simple and environmentally friendly physical foaming strategy combined with in-situ ink coating treatment. After wrapping by the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), the modified [email protected] ([email protected]@PDMS) exhibits excellent compressibility, high hydrophobic (141° in water contact angle), solar absorption (> 96.0%), and oil absorptive capacity (12.0–27.8 g/g). Benefiting from the favorable mechanical property and photothermal conversion capacity, [email protected]@PDMS is demonstrated as a high-performance absorbent for crude oil clean-up and recovery. In addition, [email protected]@PDMS can also be applied in a continuous absorption system for uninterrupted recovering of oil spills on the water surface. The proposed solar-heated absorbent design provides a new opportunity for exploring biomass in addressing large-scale oil spill disasters.