Superhydrophobic hierarchically porous polymer modified by epoxidized soybean oil and stearic acid synergy for highly efficient sustainable oil-water separation

Environmental and human health are adversely affected by oil and organic wastewater pollution of water resources. However, it has always been difficult to develop an adsorption material that is multifunctional and able to remove multiple pollutants. A new hierarchically porous polymers have been synthesized using high internal phase emulsions (HIPE) template, and further modification by a physico-chemical synergy method of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) coupled with stearic acid (STA). The modified polyHIPE (E/S-polyHIPE) exhibit superhydrophobic properties with water contact angle as high as 161.12°, and exhibit excellent robustness and chemical resistance. Oil/water mixtures can be separated using E/S-polyHIPE with a high separation efficiency (99.00–99.42 %), and it has a high oil absorption capacity (16–28 g/g) for a wide range of oil types. After 15 separation cycles, the E/S-polyHIPE exhibits excellent separation efficiency (＞ 97 %) because of its promising mechanical durability. E/S-polyHIPE still performed outstanding oil absorption capacity for floating oil, underwater oil, and emulsified oil, also it can be used as a continuous in-situoil-water separator. An innovative approach to the fabrication of a sustainable multifunctional absorbent for oily wastewater is presented in this work, which illustrates the great potential for large-scale practical application.