Solar-driven, highly-efficient, and environmentally-friendly oil spill cleanup by a superelastic photothermal thermoplastic polyurethane monolith with aligned channels.

[Display omitted] • P-MXene@TPU monolith with aligned channels was fabricated for solar-driven absorption and recovery of crude oil. • The aligned channel structures within P-MXene@TPU monolith help reduce mass transfer hindrance, accelerate capillary force-driven absorption of crude oil, and enhance heat transfer. • P-MXene@TPU monolith exhibits stable compression property due to superelastic TPU skeleton and aligned channel structures, allowing to be suitable for multiple uses in crude oil recovery via extrusion. • The self-heating monolith under solar irradiation could continuously recover viscous crude oil from seawater via a pumping device. Cleanup of crude oil spills is challenging due to its high viscosity. Reducing the viscosity of crude oil by elevating its temperature and thus promoting absorption is considered a promising and environmentally-friendly way to address this worldwide issue. Herein, we propose a photothermal superelastic thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-based monolith with aligned channels successively modified with MXene and polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) (P-MXene@TPU) for crude oil absorption and recovery. The well-oriented structures help reduce mass transfer hindrance and accelerate heat transfer, while MXene and PDMS endow the monolith with excellent photothermal conversion property and hydrophobicity, respectively. P-MXene@TPU monolith demonstrates superior oil absorption performance under solar irradiation as self-heating is realized to decrease the crude oil viscosity and promote its absorption rate. Particularly noteworthy is that P-MXene@TPU monolith can bear 300 compression cycles with a deformation of 9 % owing to the superelastic TPU skeleton and aligned channels. The stable compression performance and anti-fatigue property validate that the monolith is suitable for recovering crude oil by extrusion. Continuous crude oil recovery is achieved via a pumping device and solar irradiation (1.0 kW/m2) enhances the recovery rate by a factor of 18, as compared to the one without irradiation. Given the unique structural design and exceptional properties, this monolith provides a highly efficient approach for handing the crude oil spills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]