TDA/rGO@WS with Joule heat and photothermal synergistic effect: A promising adsorption material for all–weather recovery of viscous oil spills at sea

Oil spills are a global environmental protection challenge, and traditional adsorption materials have poor effect on low temperature and high viscosity marine oil spills. This article reports composite adsorption materials TDA/rGO@WS for viscous oil spills: loaded with rGO/TDA coating on a commercial biomass wood pulp sponge (WS), achieving Joule heating, photothermal effect and hydrophobic modification. The results showed that the TDA/rGO@WS has good photothermal conversion ability and Joule heating ability, and the temperature increased to 83.7 °C and 148 °C, respectively, under simulated solar irradiation and additional voltage at room temperature. The efficiency of absorption at a low temperature of 5 °C increased by 22.41% at 1 sun and by 51.53% at 10 V. Temperature effectively reduced the viscosity of the offshore oil spill and ensures the efficient adsorption of oil spills at low temperatures promoted. The TDA/rGO@WS also showed good hydrophobicity (WCA=129°), excellent efficiency of water–oil separation (99.53%) and good adsorption capacity (9.4–13.68 g/g) for marine fuel oils. TDA/rGO@WS effectively solves the problem of cleaning up high–viscosity oil spills from ships in winter and polar waters, and proposes a new strategy for all–weather efficient treatment of oil spills at sea. Oil spills can cause fires on the surface of the ocean, seriously endangering the lives and health of aquatic organisms. Traditional absorption materials have poor effects on low-temperature and high viscosity marine oil spills. In this work, widely available and environmentally friendly commercial wood pulp sponge was used as the substrate to modify it into an absorbent with excellent photothermal conversion and Joule heating performance. This absorbent not only enhances the absorption rate in low-temperature condition, but also allows for rapid recovery of viscous oil spills in all weather conditions, reducing the spread of oil spills and minimizing oil contamination.