Novel Ti3C2Tx MXene wrapped wood sponges for fast cleanup of crude oil spills by outstanding Joule heating and photothermal effect

Remediation of crude oil spills is a great challenge owing to the poor mobility and high viscosity of crude oil. Herein, a porous polydimethylsiloxane@wood sponge/MXene (PDMS@WSM) with outstanding compressibility and hydrophobic/lipophilic ability was demonstrated as crude oil absorbent. The surface temperature of PDMS@WSM could quickly rise to 80 °C with a working voltage of 4 V and to 66 °C under simulated sunlight irradiation of 1.5 KW m-2, respectively. Due to the excellent Joule heating and photothermal conversion effect, the PDMS@WSM displayed maximum adsorption capacity of 11.2×105 g m-3 within 6 min. The PDMS@WSM showed preferable reusability and cycle stability because of its brilliant compressibility. Moreover, the oil-collecting device based on PDMS@WSM could continuously collect crude oil spills, achieving an active collection of 25 mL crude oil within 150 s. Therefore, the porous PDMS@WSM absorbent exhibited great potential for crude oil spills remediation, energy regulation, and desalination of hypersaline water.