TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable Polysulfides for Oil Spill Remediation
T2 - Repurposing Industrial Waste for Environmental Benefit
AU - Worthington, Max J.H.
AU - Shearer, Cameron J.
AU - Esdaile, Louisa J.
AU - Campbell, Jonathan A.
AU - Gibson, Christopher T.
AU - Legg, Stephanie K.
AU - Yin, Yanting
AU - Lundquist, Nicholas A.
AU - Gascooke, Jason R.
AU - Albuquerque, Inês S.
AU - Shapter, Joseph G.
AU - Andersson, Gunther G.
AU - Lewis, David A.
AU - Bernardes, Gonçalo J.L.
AU - Chalker, Justin M.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Crude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic environments. Inexpensive and sustainable sorbents are needed to mitigate the ecological harm of this pollution. To address this need, this study features a low-density polysulfide polymer that is prepared by the direct reaction of sulfur and used cooking oils. Because both sulfur and cooking oils are hydrophobic, the polymer has an affinity for hydrocarbons such as crude oil and diesel fuel and can rapidly remove them from seawater. Through simple mechanical compression, the oil can be recovered and the polymer can be reused in oil spill remediation. The polysulfide is unique because it is prepared entirely from repurposed waste: sulfur is a by-product of the petroleum industry and used cooking oil can be used as a comonomer. In this way, sulfur waste from the oil industry is used to make an effective sorbent for combatting pollution from that same sector.
AB - Crude oil and hydrocarbon fuel spills are a perennial threat to aquatic environments. Inexpensive and sustainable sorbents are needed to mitigate the ecological harm of this pollution. To address this need, this study features a low-density polysulfide polymer that is prepared by the direct reaction of sulfur and used cooking oils. Because both sulfur and cooking oils are hydrophobic, the polymer has an affinity for hydrocarbons such as crude oil and diesel fuel and can rapidly remove them from seawater. Through simple mechanical compression, the oil can be recovered and the polymer can be reused in oil spill remediation. The polysulfide is unique because it is prepared entirely from repurposed waste: sulfur is a by-product of the petroleum industry and used cooking oil can be used as a comonomer. In this way, sulfur waste from the oil industry is used to make an effective sorbent for combatting pollution from that same sector.
KW - inverse vulcanization
KW - oil spills
KW - polysulfides
KW - sulfur
KW - waste valorization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092629129&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/DE150101863
U2 - 10.1002/adsu.201800024
DO - 10.1002/adsu.201800024
M3 - Article
SN - 2366-7486
VL - 2
JO - Advanced Sustainable Systems
JF - Advanced Sustainable Systems
IS - 6
M1 - 1800024
ER -
