Sustainable development of needle punched nonwoven fabrics from silk worm cocoon waste for oil spill removal

ABSTRACT

In this work, silkworm cocoon waste is used to make needle-punched nonwoven to study the oil sorption characteristics. The contact angles, oil sorption and retention capacity, sorption capacity after repeated use, and biodegradability of silk nonwoven are investigated. The oil sorption capacity of silk nonwoven fabrics against crude oil and vegetable oil are 31.52 g/g and 25.92 g/g respectively. The silk fibers are hydrophobic and oleophilic indicated by the contact angles. The study showed that silk nonwoven fabrics can be reused effectively at least five times before being disposed-off. The silk nonwoven biodegrades completely in soil in 100 days. The present work indicates that the silk nonwoven is a potential candidate for sustainable oil spill removal.

摘要

本文以蚕茧废料为原料制备针刺非织造布，研究其吸油特性. 研究了真丝非织造布的接触角、吸油和保油能力、反复使用后的吸附能力和生物降解性. 真丝非织造布对原油和植物油的吸附量分别为31.52g/g和25.92g/g. 从接触角来看，蚕丝纤维具有疏水性和亲油性. 研究表明，真丝非织造布在处理前至少可重复使用5次. 蚕丝非织造布在土壤中100天内完全降解. 目前的工作表明，丝绸非织造布是一个潜在的候选人，可持续的石油泄漏清除.

KEYWORDS:

• Silkworm
• needle-punched nonwoven fabrics
• silk worm cocoon waste
• oil spill
• sorbent

关键词:

• 蚕
• 针刺非织造布
• 蚕茧废物
• 石油泄漏
• 吸附剂

Acknowledgement

Authors are thankful to Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, and PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India for providing research facilities to carry out the project work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology, Chennai, India [TNSCST/YSFS/VR/08/2018-2019/122].