The synthesis of clay-polymer composite absorbents for oil removal from aqueous sources


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Marmara Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Kimya Mühendisliği (İngilizce) Anabilim Dalı, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2020

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: SİNEM ABALI

Danışman: Yaşar Andelib Aydın

Özet:

Aqueous sources are continuously polluted with oils which is a greatly threat to aquatic life. Therefore, spilled oils must be removed from water using an efficient cleaning method. Polymer based foams are frequently used as oil absorbent materials due to their lightweight, highly porous and flexible structure.

In this thesis, LDPE-organosepiolite composite foams were synthesized as oil absorbent materials. For this purpose, Eskişehir sepiolite was purified and acid treated prior to organic modification using trimethoxy(octadecyl)silane, (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane under varying reaction conditions. The synthesized sepiolite samples were subjected to oil absorption tests and characterized with BET, TGA and FT-IR analysis. The most oleophilic sepiolite was selected as filler for composite material synthesize. LDPE-organosepiolite composite pellets containing 5%, 10 % and 20% (w.) organosepiolite were produced by melt mixing using a twin screw extruder and then formed into sheets. The sheets were foamed by batch foaming using CO2 as foaming agent at saturation pressures of 45, 70 and 110 bar. The absorption capacites of synthesized foams were determined for olive oil, waste olive oil, diesel and gasoline. The reusability feature was also investigated. Foam morphologies were analyzed with SEM. According to the results, acid-treated sepiolite was more efficiently silylated than untreated sepiolite. (3-glycidyloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane modified sepiolite was selected as the filler for composite foams. The highest oil absorption capacity (3.38 g/g) and volume expansion ratio (7.43) was obtained with the foam containing 10 % (w.) organosepiolite saturated at 70 bar. Consequently, synthesized LDPE-organosepiolite composite foams can remove oil from aqueous media efficiently.