| Abstrakt: |
Cotton waste, which is generated from various processes in a textile mill like carding, blow room, etc. was collected, cleaned, pre-treated, and processed in a carding machine to make the web. The cotton web was converted to a non-woven batt through a needle punching process. The non-woven fabric was chemically modified by treating it with silica nanoparticles synthesized via the Stober process followed by hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) treatment. The chemically functionalized fabric was showing super hydrophobic and super oleophilic property. The oil absorption capacity ofthe developed sorbent was 25-30 g/g and the water contact angle was more than 150 . The morphology of the sorbent was characterized by SEM. The sorbent was found to be reusable at least 5-6 times with an oil recovery of more than 60%. Bio-degradability of the chemically modified cotton was also studied and was found to be fully biodegradable. The developed sorbent was found to be useful for cleaning oil spillage on the land surface, oil on surface water, and underwater also and was found to be superior to the commercially available syntheticpolypropylene/polyurethane sorbent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
