Superhydrophobic aerogels are attractive candidates in controlling oil spills. The major challenges for existing aerogels are the construction of mechanical endurance as well as accessible of building materials. Herein, a newfangled biomass superhydrophobic aerogel (M-PCF/CS) with both superior compressibility and oil caption speed is fabricated by assembling poplar catkin fiber (PCF) hollowed-out shell of 330 nm and chitosan (CS) into tubular-lamellar interweaved neurons-like structure. The resultant aerogels (porosity ~ 96.12%), with flexuous PCF as the elastic buffer and second-pore capillaries, exhibit large longitudinal and transverse compressibility, endurable fatigue tolerance, fast oil sorption rate with a capacity of 28.8-78.1 g/g at 5-25 s. In parallel, the aerogels are tolerant of NaCl, UV radiation, and organic solvents without superhydrophobic variation and a case of oil spill remediation via pump-supported experiment shows that the aerogels facilely achieve continuous oil recycling from seawater by 23052-43956 L·m-2·h-1. Furthermore, the resultant M-PCF/CS, with assistance of an oscillator, can be applied to separate oil/water emulsions with efficiency of 98.07-99.11%. The successful fabrication of this material provides a new design strategy for the construction of mechanically robust aerogels for speedy and economical cleanup of oil pollutants from water.
Keywords: Chitosan; Oil sorption; Oil/water separation; Poplar catkin fiber; Superhydrophobic aerogel.
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