Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Chemical Engineering Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cej

Superhydrophobic kapok fiber oil-absorbent: Preparation and high oil absorbency

Jintao Wang a,b, Yian Zheng a,b, Aiqin Wang a,⇑
a
Center of Eco-Material and Green Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, PR China
b
Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

" Superhydrophobic kapok fiber was

prepared via sol–gel method and
used for oil sorption.
" The modified kapok fiber is covered
by silica nanoparticles and surface
become rough.
" The modified kapok fiber have high
oil sorption capacity and oil–water
separation selectivity.
" The modified kapok fiber have the
capability of removing oil in oil/
water mixture.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Superhydrophobic and oleophilic oil sorbent was successfully prepared by the incorporation of silica
Received 9 August 2012 nanoparticles onto kapok fiber via sol–gel method and subsequent hydrophobic modification using
Received in revised form 20 September 2012 hydrolyzed dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS). The formation of silica nanoparticles was confirmed by
Accepted 21 September 2012
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and investigation
Available online 11 October 2012
of the wetting behavior of water and oil on fiber surface. The coated fiber exhibited excellent oil/water
selectivity in the cleanup of oil over water. The as-prepared fiber can quickly absorb diesel and soybean
Keywords:
oil up to above 46.9 and 58.8 g/g, with the improvement in oil sorption capacity to be 46.6% and 20.2%
Superhydrophobic
Silica nanoparticles
compared with raw fiber, respectively. Owing to high oil sorption capacity, excellent hydrophobic prop-
Kapok fiber erty and reusability, and good environmental friendliness, the as-prepared oil sorbent can be considered
Oil sorption capacity as promising alternative for organic synthetic fiber to clean up the spilled oil.
Reusability Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years, water pollution caused by the oil spillage has
become increasingly serious with the acceleration of urbanization
and industrialization process [1]. Commonly used methods of solv-
ing these oil-leakage problems include mechanical extraction,
combustion and chemical degradation. Owing to the economy
and efficiency for oil spill cleanup, mechanical extraction by sorp-
tion materials is regarded as one of the most desirable choices for
the recovery of oil. Although many sorption materials such as inor-
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 931 4968118; fax: +86 931 8277088.
E-mail address: aqwang@licp.cas.cn (A. Wang).
ganic mineral materials [2], synthetic materials, [3] and natural
materials [4] have been widely studied for the removal of spilled
oil, these materials still have some limitations such as low oil sorp-
tion capacity, inadequate buoyancy, high cost, and poor reusability.
Especially, most of materials studied have poor hydrophobicity,
resulting in low oil–water separation selectivity and efficiency
[5,6]. Hence, the exploitation of new oil sorption materials with
high sorption capacity, low cost, low water pickup, excellent envi-
ronmental benefit and reusability is rather important for oil pollu-
tion treatment.
Superhydrophobic surface with water contact angles higher
than 150° has attracted extensive interest [7,8]. Previous studies
have revealed that superhydrophobicity depends on not only the

1385-8947/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2012.09.116
2 J. Wang et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7
low surface energy of the substrate but also the hierarchical micro-
and nanostructures of the surface. So far, various methods such as
phase separation [9], laser etching [10], sol–gel method [11], and
chemical vapor deposition [12] have been used to prepare super-
hydrophobic surface. Therein, nano-structured surface generated
by sol–gel method followed by further hydrophobic modification,
is taken as a simple and effective technique for fabricating super-
hydrophobic coatings onto the surface of materials [13], by which
the resulting materials will exhibit excellent affinity to oil and
water repellency in water–oil surroundings, and accordingly, these
superhydrophobic materials can be applied in the field of oil spill
clean-up. A variety of materials, such as carbon nanotube sponges
[14], nanowire membranes [15], superhydrophobic and superoleo-
philic sponges [16], superhydrophobic, and oleophilic calcium car-
bonate powder [17] have been developed for separating oil from
water. Even so, the drawbacks of these materials with complicated
preparation process and high cost still limit their application scale
in practice.
Kapok is a kind of natural plant fiber that has low density, good
buoyancy, huge hollowness and excellent hydrophobicity. These
unique characteristics endow kapok fiber with higher oil sorption
capability compared with common natural fibers and commercial
oil absorbent [18,19]. However, the smooth fiber surface due to
the coverage of a small amount of waxy coating makes it difficult
to effectively retain oil to fiber assembly. If the oil sorption capacity
and hydrophobicity of kapok fiber can be further enhanced by sur-
face modification, it would be more valuable for the oil spill clean-
up. The silica coating shows excellent adhesion on cellulosic
materials by the condensation between the hydroxyl groups of
the hydrolyzed silanes and those existing on the surface of cellu-
lose [20]. Hence, it is feasible to turn the surface of kapok fiber
from hydrophobicity into superhydrophobicity. To the best of our
knowledge, there is no report on the use of superhydrophobic ka-
pok fiber for oil sorption. Herein, the oil sorbent based on superhy-
drophobic kapok fiber was prepared through a facile sol–gel
technique. The sorption capacity and hydrophobicity of modified
fiber were evaluated. The results of this study provide ideas for
the application of other superhydrophobic modified cellulosic
materials in oil spill cleanup.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Kapok was purchased from Shanghai Pan-Da Co. Ltd., China.
NaClO2 (chemically pure) was provided by Beijin Hua-Wei Chemi-
cal Reagent Co., China. Acetic acid (analytical grade), sodium dode-
cyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS, chemically pure), and CHCl3
(analytical grade) were received from Shanghai Chemical Reagent
Factory, China. Tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS, chemically pure)
were supplied by Tianjin Chemical Reagent Factory, China. Dode-
cyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS, chemically pure) was provided by Sin-
opharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd., China. NH3H2O (analytical
grade) was obtained Baiyin Chemical Reagent Factory, China. Eth-
anol, toluene, n-hexane (analytical grade) were supplied by Tianjin
Li-An Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd., China. Gasoline, diesel and soy-
bean oil came from the local market, Lanzhou, China.
2.2. Preparation process of superhydrophobic kapok fiber
Raw fiber was treated with NaClO2 according to the reported
process [21]. Raw fiber was placed into 400 mL of NaClO2 solution
(0.5 wt.%), while a certain amount of acetic acid was added to ad-
just pH 4.5. Afterwards, the treatment was kept at 80 °C for 1 h at
700 rpm. The treated fiber was washed several times with distilled
water until the pH level of filtrate reached neutrality, then dried in
an oven at 70 °C to constant weight and used in all the later mod-
ification. TEOS (4 wt.%) and SDBS (1.2 mmol/L) were added to a
certain amount of distilled water, stirred at room temperature
for 1 h, then NaClO2-treated kapok fiber was added into the mix-
ture and stirred for 20 min followed by a gradual addition of
NH3H2O (1.8 wt.%). The reaction was maintained at room temper-
ature for 4 h. The resulting fiber was washed several times with
methanol, and dried in vacuum oven at 60 °C to constant weight.
Then, the coated fiber was added into ethanol solution of DTMS
(2 wt.%) and hydrolyzed for 1 h. Finally, the obtained sample was
filtered, dried at room temperature and cured at 120 °C for 1 h.
2.3. Measurements of oil sorption capacity
In oil medium without water: The dried sample (0.1 g) was put
into a stainless-steel mesh weighed beforehand and immersed in
oil at room temperature. The sample and the mesh were taken
out from the oil together after a certain time, drained for 10 s,
and wiped with filter paper to remove excess oil from the bottom
of the mesh. The oil absorbency of the sample was determined by
weighing the samples before and after the absorption, and calcu-
lated by the following formula:
Q ¼ ðM t  M i  M w Þ=M i
where Q is the oil sorption capacity of the sorbents calculated as
grams of oil per gram of sample, Mt the weight of the wet sorbents
after draining (g), Mi the initial weight of sorbents (g) and Mw is the
weight of water absorbed in the sorbents (g). In pure oil medium
without any water, Mw is equal to zero.
In oil/water mixture: The diesel or soybean oil was mixed with
60 mL of artificial seawater (3.5 wt.% NaCl) in a 100 mL conical
flask for 10 min at 150 rpm over an orbital shaker. The agitation
can make the oil float to the surface of the artificial seawater and
form the oil layer. Then, 0.1 g sorbent was added to the oil/water
mixture. The concentrations of diesel and soybean oil used varied
from 0.01 to 0.14 g/mL of water. The sorbent was left in the oil/
water mixture and shaken for 60 min at 30 °C. After that, the sam-
ple was removed from the flask using mesh screen, drained for
1 min, and weighed. Water content was determined by the method
of extraction separation using n-hexane as the solvent.
2.4. Reusability
Kapok fiber of absorbing oil from the water surface was re-
moved with the aid of a mesh screen, which was then placed on
a sand core funnel and drained under vacuum for 10 min before
weighing. Oil will be recovered without severe disruption of the
appearance of the fiber. The sorption/desorption cycle was re-
peated for eight cycles to evaluate the recyclability of the fiber.
2.5. Characterizations
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra were recorded on a
Nicolet NEXUS FTIR spectrometer using KBr pellets. The micro-
graphs of samples were examined using SEM (JSM-5600LV, JEOL).
Before SEM observation, all samples were fixed on aluminum stubs
and coated with gold. The surface wettability of water and oil on
the surface of kapok fiber was observed with a digital SLR camera
after the water or oil dyed with coloring matter was dripped on the
surface of fiber from a syringe (1 mL). Contact angle measurements
were carried out using a Krüss DSA 100 (Krüss Company, Ltd., Ger-
many) apparatus at ambient temperature, and the volumes of
probing liquids in the measurements were approximately 5 lL.
Prior to observation, kapok fiber assembly was flattened with tab-
let machine.
 J. Wang et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Fabrication of superhydrophobic and oleophilic surface
The superhydrophobic modification process for raw kapok fiber
is shown in Fig. 1. The hydroxyl groups on the cellulosic materials
play a vital role for the formation of superhydrophobic surface
[20,21]. The surface of raw kapok fiber is covered by natural plant
wax, which makes silica nanoparticles more difficult to attach to
the surface of the fiber. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the sur-
face plant wax of kapok fiber. In this study, kapok fiber was treated
with NaClO2, and the hollow structure of the fiber was still intact
after the treatment [22]. Moreover, the treatment will result in
the generation of interspaces and increase the hydroxyl concentra-
tion of the fiber surface, making the hydrolyzed silanol easily pen-
etrate into the interspaces of the fiber to form silica nanoparticles
[23]. Thereinto, partial silica nanoparticles present on the surface
of the fiber by means of the hydrogen bond interaction between
the Si–OH group of the hydrolyzed silane and the hydroxyl groups
of the fiber, while some silica nanoparticles can firmly adhere to
the fiber surface in the form of physical conglutination. In order
to reveal the hydrophobic and lipophilic effect of the modified fiber
surface, the surface wettability of water and oil on the surface of
raw, treated, and modified fiber was observed, as shown in Fig. 2.
The blue-colored water drop shows a large contact angle on raw
kapok fiber (h = 116°), while the water drop sinks rapidly into the
fiber treated with NaClO2 to form a large spreading radius on the
surface. The kapok fiber coated by the silica hydrosol with subse-
quent hydrolyzation in DTMS has water contact angle of 151°,
which is much higher than raw fiber, indicating that the treatment
effectively improves the hydrophobic property of raw fiber. When
the red-colored oil drop is applied on the surface of three kinds of
fiber, the drop sinks completely into the fiber in a very short time,
suggesting that the oil drop is a wetting liquid for all three fibers.
Owning to its light density and superhydrophobic nature, the mod-
ified fiber may float on the surface of water more steadily before
and after collecting all of oils from water, a predominant character-
istic for practical use of oil spills cleanup.
3.2. FTIR spectra
The FTIR spectra of raw, treated, and superhydrophobic kapok
fibers are displayed in Fig. 3. Comparing the spectra of raw, treated
and superhydrophobic fibers, the following findings will be ob-
tained. In Fig. 3c, the intensity of the peak at 3411 cm1 (stretching
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of transition from raw kapok fiber to superhy-
drophobic kapok fiber.
3
vibration peak of surface –OH) decreases obviously as compared
with that of treated fiber; a absorption peak (symmetric stretching
vibration of Si–O–Si) is observed at 467 cm1 [24]; strong absorp-
tion bands corresponding to asymmetric and symmetric stretching
vibration of CH2 and CH3 in DTMS appear at 2923 and 2856 cm1
[25]. In addition, the characteristic absorption peaks around
1100–1000 cm1 attributed to Si–O–Si of silica nano-particles
and DTMS seem to be overlapped by the C–O stretching vibration
of cellulose in fiber. These changes indicate that the total numbers
of –OH was reduced and hydrophobic silica nano-particles were
formed on the surface of kapok fiber.
3.3. Morphology analyses
The surface appearances of raw, treated and superhydrophobic
kapok fibers are shown in Fig. 4. It is obvious that raw kapok fiber
shows a smooth surface owning to the coverage of inherent plant
wax (Fig. 4a), while the treatment makes the fiber surface become
rough with subtle textures and wrinkles, implying that waxy coat-
ing has been removed from the fiber surface and the fiber changes
from hydrophobic to hydrophilic due to the exposition of more cel-
lulose hydroxyl groups [22]. Different from raw and treated fiber,
the modified fiber is covered by dense silica nanoparticles without
any interstices, which renders the surface rougher. In addition,
even though the external surface of the fiber is covered by silica
nanoparticles, the internal hollow lumen is not blocked by the sil-
ica nanoparticles, ensuring that the intrinsic oil sorption capacity is
not reduced for raw kapok fiber as an oil sorbent.
3.4. Oil sorption capacity of raw and superhydrophobic fiber for
various oils
The superhydrophobic modification of kapok fiber not only fab-
ricates a rough structure on the surface but also decreases the sur-
face energy, which in turn affects its oil affinity. To study the
maximum oil sorption capacity of superhydrophobic fiber for vari-
ous common oils, the sorption experiment was carried out in pure
oil without any water. For comparison, the oil sorption capability of
raw kapok fiber was also investigated. As shown in Fig. 5, the oil
sorption capacity of raw kapok fiber for n-hexane, toluene, chloro-
form, gasoline, diesel, and soybean oil is 22.8, 30.4, 41.9, 34.1, 38.1,
and 49.1 g/g, respectively, while the oil sorption capacity of modi-
fied fiber for these oils can reach about 41.8, 56, 85.5, 50.5, 54.2,
and 59.8 g/g, respectively. This means that superhydrophobic mod-
ification is very useful for preparing a kind of oil sorbent with excel-
lent oil sorption performance. In addition, it can be observed that
the modified fiber exhibits high oil sorption capacity for chloroform
and vegetable oil. The high oil sorption capacity for chloroform is
due to its high relative density [21], for vegetable oil, this is mainly
attributed to its high viscosity [18,23]. The oil with high viscosity is
easier to adhere to the fiber surface and be kept in the fiber assem-
bly. Generally, for kapok fiber, the parameters such as the amount
of surface wax, hollow lumen, surface roughness, twist, crimp and
fineness etc. play an important role in the retention of oil [26,27].
The oil that is retained in the fiber assembly can be divided into
two kinds of types: the oil stored in an internal lumen and the oil
retained in the voids among fibers [18,22,28]. After the modifica-
tion of kapok fiber, the oil absorbed in the voids of the fibers is dif-
ficult to escape from the surface of fiber during the dripping of the
oil-loaded fiber assembly due to more stable capillary bridging be-
tween fiber bundles. According to Wenzel model and the Cassie–
Baxter model [29,30], the fabrication of a proper microsturcture
can make a smooth oleophilic surface to be more oleophilic or even
superoleophilic due to the capillary effect. Consequently, the oil
affinity of raw kapok fiber was markedly improved by roughening
the surface and lowering the surface energy. By contrast, more oil
4 J. Wang et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7
Fig. 2. Pictures of water droplet (dyed with methylene blue) on (a) raw, (b) treated, and (c) superhydrophobic kapok fiber surface; oil droplet (dyed with oil red O) on (a1)
raw, (b1) treated, and (c1) superhydrophobic kapok fiber surface. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)
Fig. 3. FTIR spectra of (a) raw, (b) treated, and (c) superhydrophobic kapok fiber.
can escape from raw kapok fiber assembly as a result of the smooth
surface. The findings in this study imply that the surface roughness
and surface energy of kapok fiber are two important factors that
influence the oil sorption capability. Besides, the oil sorption capac-
ities of modified fiber in this study and other recently reported oil-
absorbing fiber also are compared and shown in Table 1, and the re-
sults are encouraging. Although the oil sorption capacity of polyvi-
nyl chloride/polystyrene fiber is close to that of raw kapok fiber
[32], this type of synthetic organic material as oil sorbent is difficult
to be used on a large scale due to its high cost and nonbiodegrada-
bility. Compared with this type of synthetic sorbents, superhydro-
phobic kapok fiber is much easier to prepare for practical use,
demonstrating its great potentials in the removal of toxic organic
solvents or oil spills from water. The application of oil sorbent based
on natural fiber may offer an opportunity to alleviate the current
environmental crisis especially for the global scale of serious water
contamination arising from oil spills and industrial organic
contaminants.
3.5. Effect of amount of oil on water
It is very important to know exact sorption capacity of oil sor-
bent on water surface for effective use of one kind of sorbent in
practical oil spill cleanup. The oil and water sorption capacities of
raw and superhydrophobic fiber in the oil on the water containing
various amount of oil (diesel and soybean oil) are shown in Fig. 6.
The investigation of amounts of water pickup will reflect the hydro-
phobic characteristic of sorbent and its oil affinity. It is observed
that the oil sorption capacities of both raw and modified fibers in-
crease with increasing the initial concentration of oil until they
reach a plateau. When the concentrations of diesel and soybean
oil used are below the values of 3.6 and 4.8 g/mL respectively, both
raw fiber and superhydrophobic fibers are capable of removing all
of floating oils on water, giving an indication that similar oil sorp-
tion capacities for raw and superhydrophobic fibers can be obtained
within this range of oil concentration. Afterwards, superhydropho-
bic fiber always exhibits higher sorption capacities compared with
raw fiber. As such, a certain amount of oil floating on water can be
completely picked up in a shorter time by the superhydrophobic fi-
ber, which is useful for preventing the dispersion of spilled oil on
water. Such high oil sorption capacity should be mainly attributed
to the surface roughness within nanometer size magnitude. There-
fore, as-prepared fiber can better hold the oil to the fiber assembly.
In oil/water mixture systems, the maximum oil sorption capacities
of raw fiber are about 32 and 48.9 g/g for diesel and soybean oil,
while the oil capacities of modified fiber are 46.9 and 58.8 g/g for
the two oils, respectively. This indicates that the oil sorption capac-
ity of raw fiber can be improved significantly by the surface modi-
fication. In addition, the water pickup of superhydrophobic fiber is
obviously lower than that of raw fiber, showing its good oil/water
selectivity. Excellent selectivity for oil on water surface and high
oil sorption capacity demonstrate that modified fiber is full of appli-
cation potential in the large-scale removal of oils from water.
3.6. Removal of oil film by raw and superhydrophobic fiber
In order to exhibit the oil sorption characteristics of modified fi-
ber on artificial sea water, optical images for the cleanup of soy-
 J. Wang et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7 5

Fig. 4. SEM micrographs of (a, a1) raw, (b, b1) treated, and (c, c1) superhydrophobic kapok fiber.

fiber. When the superhydrophobic fiber is immersed in oil/water

Fig. 5. Maximum sorption capacities of raw and superhydrophobic kapok fiber for
different oils.
mixture, the oil is quickly absorbed by the fiber within several sec-
onds. After that, the oil can removed easily from the oil/water mix-
ture by taking away the oil-loaded modified fiber from the water
surface. Interestingly, almost no dripping of the oil appears in the
process of moving the fiber from the water surface, and there is
also no obvious residual oil can be observed in the container. On
the contrary, for raw fiber, 6 g of oil is difficult to be completely
cleanup from the oil/water mixture, and the dripping of oil is very
serious when picking up the oil-loaded fiber. The sorption of oil by
fiber is mainly regulated by surface sorption and capillary action,
thus the factors such as surface wax, fineness, pore structure, and
surface roughness will affect the oil sorption capacity of fiber
assembly. For this study, the surface roughness plays an important
role in the retention of oil, and the improvement of surface rough-
ness after coating with silica nanoparticle hinders the escape of ab-
sorbed oil from the fiber assembly, while the absorbed oil is easier
to escape from the assembly of raw fiber due to smooth lumen
surface.

Table 1
Comparison of oil sorption capacities from this study and other oil-absorbing fibers.
3.7. Reusability
Absorbing fiber Type of oil Sorption capacity Reference
(g/g) To recover absorbed oil and reuse the superhydrophobic fiber,
Raw cotton fiber Vegetable 30 [31] oil-loaded fiber assembly is squeezed with the aid of vacuum
oil pump, and the fiber of removing oil is used for the next sorption
Polyvinyl chloride/ Diesel 38 [32]
of oil on the water surface. The reusability change in oil sorption
polystyrene fiber
Commercial polypropylene Diesel 8 capacity of superhydrophobic kapok fiber for diesel and soybean
Methacrylate–lauryl Toluene 15 [33] oil after eight sorption and desorption cycles is shown in Fig. 8. It
methacrylate fiber Chloroform 34.7 can be seen that the oil sorption capacities decrease slightly
Wool fiber-based nonwoven Diesel 10.6 [34]
throughout the whole cycles and the decrease of oil sorption
Vegetable 14.5
oil capacity does not exceed 20% after 8 cycles of sorption/desorption.
Raw kapok fiber Diesel 38.1 This work The decreases of oil-absorption capacity are mainly attributed to
Soybean oil 49.1 the residual oils in the voids of fiber assembly. Importantly, about
Superhydrophobic kapok fiber Diesel 54.2 more than 90% volume of absorbed oil can be removed by the vac-
Soybean oil 59.8
uum filtration. Once the vacuum is generated in the oil recovery
system, the absorbed oil is immediately released and delivered into
bean oil from the water surface by raw and as-prepared fiber are filter container from the funnel. The recovering of oil from fibers
displayed in Fig. 7. It can be seen that the superhydrophobic fiber via strong mechanical pressure can cause the severe loss of intrin-
is easier to separate oil from the water surface compared with raw sic sorption capability of porous sorbent due to the occurrence of
6 J. Wang et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7

Fig. 6. Removal of oil as a function of oil concentration by raw and superhydrophobic kapok fiber.

Fig. 7. Pictures for the cleanup of soybean oil (colored with oil red O) from water. (a) Soybean oil was floating on water; (b) the oil was absorbed by superhydrophobic fiber;
(c) the oil-loaded superhydrophobic fiber was picked up; (d) the oil was absorbed by raw fiber; and (e) the oil-loaded raw fiber was picked up. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

by the hydrophobization of DTMS. After the surface modification of

kapok fiber, the existence of uniform nanoscale roughness protu-
berances with low surface energy imparted the fiber better
oil/water selectivity and higher oil sorption capability. The ab-
sorbed oil can be easily recovered with the aid of simple mechan-
ical squeezing, with no severe loss of sorption properties after
reusing several times. The results also suggest that superhydro-
phobic modification for cellulosic materials is an effective method
to improve the oil sorption capability. Owning to the advantages of
high oil sorption capacity, low density, easily scalable fabrication,
and excellent hydrophobic property and reusability, the as-pre-
pared fiber is promising as a candidate for the replacement of or-
ganic oil sorbent and applied in the large-scale removal of spilled
oil on water surface.

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge jointly supporting of this

Fig. 8. Reusability of raw and superhydrophobic kapok fiber.
irreversible deformation and the contraction [18,22]. As a result,
the sorbents can only be utilized for limited times. In this study,
oil is recovered by a large margin from oil-loaded fibers by milder
procedure without severe disruption of the fiber hollow lumen.
This also implies that removing oil from porous materials with vac-
uum pump may be an effective method in practical oil recovery.
The excellent reusability makes superhydrophobic fiber be more
attractive than traditional oil sorbents like polypropylene and ac-
tive carbons in the cleanup of spilled oil.
4. Conclusions
A superhydrophobic surface was fabricated on kapok fiber
through the sol–gel method using TEOS as the precursor followed
research by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 21107116) and the Science and Technology Support Project
of Jiangsu Provincial Sci. & Tech. Department (No. BY2010012).
References
[1] S. Syed, M.I. Alhazzaa, M. Asif, Treatment of oily water using hydrophobic
nano-silica, Chem. Eng. J. 167 (2011) 99–103.
[2] C. Teas, S. Kalligeros, F. Zanikos, S. Stournas, E. Lois, G. Anastopoulos,
Investigation of the effectiveness of absorbent materials in oil spills clean up,
Desalination 140 (2001) 259–264.
[3] X.M. Zhou, C.Z. Chuai, Synthesis and characterization of a novel high-oil-
absorbing resin, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 115 (2010) 3321–3325.
[4] S.S. Banerjee, M.V. Joshi, R.V. Jayaram, Treatment of oil spill by sorption
technique using fatty acid grafted sawdust, Chemosphere 64 (2006) 1026–
1031.
[5] D. Angelova, I. Uzunov, S. Uzunova, A. Gigova, L. Minchev, Kinetics of oil and oil
products adsorption by carbonized rice husks, Chem. Eng. J. 172 (2011) 306–
311.
 J. Wang et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 213 (2012) 1–7
[6] S.M. Sidik, A.A. Jalilb, S. Triwahyono, S.H. Adam, M.A.H. Satar, B.H. Hameed,
Modified oil palm leaves adsorbent with enhanced hydrophobicity for crude
oil removal, Chem. Eng. J. 203 (2012) 9–18. [21]
[7] J. Zimmermann, F. Reifler, G. Fortunato, L. Gerhardt, S. Seeger, A simple, one-
step approach to durable and robust superhydrophobic textiles, Adv. Funct.
Mater. 18 (2008) 3662–3669. [22]
[8] H.F. Hoefnagels, D. Wu, G. de With, W. Ming, Biomimetic superhydrophobic
and highly oleophobic cotton textiles, Langmuir 23 (2007) 13158–13163. [23]
[9] N. Zhao, J. Xu, Q.D. Xie, L.H. Weng, X.L. Guo, X.L. Zhang, L.H. Shi, Fabrication of
biomimetic superhydrophobic coating with a micro-nano-binary structure,
Macromol. Rapid Commun. 26 (2005) 1075–1080. [24]
[10] T. Baldacchini, J.E. Carey, M. Zhou, E. Mazur, Superhydrophobic surfaces
prepared by microstructuring of silicon using a femtosecond laser, Langmuir [25]
22 (2006) 4917–4919.
[11] H.X. Wang, J. Fang, T. Cheng, J. Ding, L.T. Qu, L.M. Dai, X.G. Wang, T. Lin, One-
step coating of fluoro-containing silica nanoparticles for universal generation [26]
of surface superhydrophobicity, Chem. Commun. 7 (2008) 877–879.
[12] S.H. Li, H.B. Xie, S.B. Zhang, X.H. Wang, Facile transformation of hydrophilic
cellulose into superhydrophobic cellulose, Chem. Commun. 45 (2007) 4857–4859. [27]
[13] W.Q. Huang, Y. Song, Y.J. Xing, J.J. Dai, Durable hydrophobic cellulose fabric
prepared with polycarboxylic acid catalyzed silica sol, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 49
(2010) 9135–9142. [28]
[14] X.C. Gui, J.Q. Wei, K.L. Wang, A.Y. Cao, H.W. Zhu, Y. Jia, Q.K. Shu, D.H. Wu,
Carbon nanotube sponges, Adv. Mater. 22 (2010) 617–621. [29]
[15] J. Yuan, X. Liu, O. Akbulut, J. Hu, S.L. Suib, J. Kong, F. Stellacci, Superwetting
nanowire membranes for selective absorption, Nat. Nanotechnol. 3 (2008) [30]
332–336.
[16] Q. Zhu, Q.M. Pan, F.T. Liu, Facile removal and collection of oils from water [31]
surfaces through superhydrophobic and superoleophilic sponges, J. Phys.
Chem. C 115 (2011) 17464–17470.
[17] T. Arbatana, X.Y. Fang, W. Shen, Superhydrophobic and oleophilic calcium
carbonate powder as a selective oil sorbent with potential use in oil spill clean- [32]
ups, Chem. Eng. J. 166 (2011) 787–791.
[18] M.A. Abdullah, A.U. Rahmah, Z. Man, Physicochemical and sorption
characteristics of Malaysian Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. as a natural oil [33]
sorbent, J. Hazard. Mater. 177 (2010) 683–691.
[19] X.F. Huang, T.T. Lim, Performance and mechanism of hydrophobic–oleophilic
kapok filter for oil/water separation, Desalination 190 (2006) 295–307. [34]
[20] J. Vince, B.A. Vilcnik, M. Fir, A.Š. Vuk, V. Jovanovski, B. Simoncic, Structural and
water-repellent properties of a urea/poly(dimethylsiloxane) solgel hybrid
7
and its bonding to cotton fabric, Langmuir 22 (2006) 6489–
6497.
S.H. Li, S.B. Zhang, X.H. Wang, Fabrication of superhydrophobic cellulose-based
materials through a solution-immersion process, Langmuir 24 (2008) 5585–
5590.
J.T. Wang, Y.A. Zheng, A.Q. Wang, Effect of kapok fiber treated with various
solvents on oil absorbency, Ind. Crops Prod. 40 (2012) 178–184.
T.T. Lim, X.F. Huang, Evaluation of kapok [Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn.] as a
natural hollow hydrophobic–oleophilic fibrous sorbent for oil spill cleanup,
Chemosphere 66 (2007) 955–963.
F. Shi, L.J. Wang, J.X. Liu, Synthesis and characterization of silica aerogels by a
novel fast ambient pressure drying process, Mater. Lett. 60 (2006) 3718–3722.
S.D. Bhagat, A.V. Rao, Surface chemical modification of TEOS based silica
aerogels synthesized by two step (acid–base) sol–gel process, Appl. Surf. Sci.
252 (2006) 4289–4297.
H.M. Choi, J.P. Moreau, Oil sorption behavior of various sorbents studied by
sorption capacity measurement and environmental scanning, Micro. Res.
Technol. 25 (1993) 447–455.
V. Rajakovic, G. Aleksic, M. Radetic, Lj. Rajakovic, Efficiency of oil removal from
real wastewater with different sorbent materials, J. Hazard. Mater. 143 (2007)
494–499.
H.M. Choi, R.M. Cloud, Natural sorbents in oil spill cleanup, Environ. Sci.
Technol. 26 (1992) 772–776.
R.N. Wenzel, Resistance of solid surface to wetting by water, J. Ind. Eng. Chem.
28 (1936) 988–994.
A.B.D. Cassie, S. Baxter, Wettability of porous surfaces, Trans. Faraday Soc. 40
(1944) 546–551.
G. Deschamps, H. Caruel, M.E. Borredon, C. Bonnin, C. Vignoles, Oil removal
from water by selective sorption on hydrophobic cotton fibers. 1. Study of
sorption properties and comparison with other cotton fiber-based sorbents,
Environ. Sci. Technol. 37 (2003) 1013–1015.
H.T. Zhu, S.S. Qiu, W. Jiang, D.X. Wu, C.Y. Zhang, Evaluation of electrospun
polyvinyl chloride/polystyrene fibers as sorbent materials for oil spill cleanup,
Environ. Sci. Technol. 45 (2011) 4527–4531.
Y. Feng, C.F. Xiao, Research on butyl methacrylate–lauryl methacrylate
copolymeric fibers for oil absorbency, J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 101 (2006) 1248–
1251.
M. Radetic, V. Ilic, D. Radojevic, R. Miladinovic, D. Jocic, P. Jovancic, Efficiency of
recycled wool-based nonwoven material for the removal of oils from water,
Chemosphere 70 (2008) 525–530.