3D MXene Sponge: Facile Synthesis, Excellent Hydrophobicity, and High Photothermal Efficiency for Waste Oil Collection and Purification

Photothermally assisted superhydrophobic sponges play a vital role in the fields of waste oil collection, oil purification, and solar desalination. However, the widely reported superhydrophobic sponges with photothermal efficiency usually suffer from a post-/premodification process of harmful materials, high loading content of photothermal agents, and low photothermal efficiency. Herein, an MXene-based melamine sponge (MS) was facilely fabricated by hydrogen bonding interaction between the amino groups on the skeleton of the MS and the polar groups on the surface of the as-exfoliated 2D MXene Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets. Interestingly, the as-fabricated MXene sponge exhibits excellent hydrophobicity and high photothermal efficiency under an extremely low loading of MXene Ti₃C₂T_x nanosheets (0.1 wt %). Moreover, the highly hydrophobic sponge also possesses a high oil absorption capacity as high as 176 times of its own weight and keeps stable under multiple absorption/desorption cycling tests. Surprisingly, the surface temperature of the MXene sponge can quickly reach 47 °C under illumination and has good reproducibility during multiple light on/off cycles. The excellent photothermal performance and large oil absorption capacity of the MXene sponge endow the highly hydrophobic sponge with fast solvent evaporation speed and high-purity waste oil collection (99.7 wt % dichloromethane) under illumination, which holds great promise for oil/water separation, leaked oil collection, and photo-driven waste oil collection and purification applications. It is envisioned that this work can open a new strategy for new designs of 3D multifunctional sponges for high-performance waste oil collection and purification.