Preparation and properties of multifunctional P-CNT/CS aerogel with photothermal responsiveness and hierarchical structure

Aiming at the problems of low oil absorption capacity, poor mechanical strength and susceptibility to impurity contamination of traditional oil-absorbing materials in the management of marine crude oil spills, a novel super hydrophobic composite oil-absorbing material has been developed in this study through multiscale structural design and functional modification. The superhydrophobic P-CNTs/CS aerogel with photothermal response properties was successfully prepared by the synergistic assembly of carboxylated carbon nanotubes (C-CNTs) and chitosan (CS) to construct a three-dimensional porous network skeleton, combined with the surface modification of mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) and the photografting process of octa-vinylsesquicarbosilane (POSS). The material shows excellent comprehensive performance: the surface water contact angle reaches 150.3°; it can withstand 19.81 kPa stress at 60% compressive strain and the stress recovery rate reaches 86.37% after 10 cycles; the adsorption capacity of oil and organic solvents is as high as 32.59-71.85 g/g; the surface temperature of the sample increased to 71.5℃ at 1 solar irradiation for 300 s, while significantly reducing the crude oil viscosity, which can realize the effective recovery of high viscosity oil. The unique oriented pore structure of this multifunctional aerogel synergizes with the dual mechanism of physical adsorption, and its photo-thermal responsiveness as well as superhydrophobicity provide a new and effective strategy for solving the problem of crude oil leakage in the marine environment.