Development and characterization of DTMS treated nettle fiber nonwovens for oil spill removal applications

Abstract

In this work, nonwoven oil sorbent from nettle fiber was developed by changing the hydrophilic surface of nettle fiber to a hydrophobic surface by dodecycltrimethoxysialne (DTMS) treatment. Change in the surface structure of the fiber due to DTMS treatment was confirmed by SEM analysis. Fourier transform infrared analyses showed clear evidence of successful incorporation of DTMS on nettle fiber. The oil sorption capacities of diesel oil and crude oil were 31.39 and 41.89 g/g, respectively, which were found to be considerably higher than commercial oil sorbents. The pseudo first order and pseudo second order kinetic equations were employed to obtain the sorption rate constants and equilibrium sorption capacity. The results showed that the process fits the pseudo second-order kinetic model better for oil sorption than the pseudo first-order kinetic model. Also, the sorption capacities of the unmodified and modified samples were estimated by analyzing the isotherm data using Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models. The results show that fitting via the Langmuir isotherm model produced a higher correlation coefficient than fitting via the Freundlich isotherm model. DTMS treated nettle nonwoven fabrics also showed good buoyancy characteristics under both static and dynamic conditions. Due to high oil sorption ability, reusability, and environmental responsiveness, the developed nonwoven oil sorbent can be considered as a potential substitute for organic synthetic fiber for oil spill removal applications.

Keywords:

• Nettle nonwovens
• sorbent
• oil sorption
• DTMS
• oil spill

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.