Photothermal, Magnetic, and Superhydrophobic PU Sponge Decorated with a Fe3O4/MXene/Lignin Composite for Efficient Oil/Water Separation

Frequent oil spills and the discharge of industrial oily wastewaters have become a serious threat to the environment, ecosystem, and human beings. Herein, a photothermal, magnetic, and superhydrophobic PU sponge decorated with a Fe₃O₄/MXene/lignin composite (labeled as S-Fe₃O₄/MXene/lignin@PU sponge) has been designed and prepared. The obtained superhydrophobic/superoleophilic PU sponge possesses excellent chemical stability, thermal stability, and mechanical durability in terms of being immersed in corrosive solutions and organic solvents and boiling water and being abrased by sandpapers, respectively. The oil adsorption capacities of the S-Fe₃O₄/MXene/lignin@PU sponge for various organic liquids range from 29.1 to 70.3 g/g, and the oil adsorption capacity for CCl₄ can remain 69.6 g/g even after 15 cyclic adsorption tests. The separation efficiencies of the S-Fe₃O₄/MXene/lignin@PU sponge for n-hexane and CCl₄ are higher than 98% in different environments (i.e., water, hot water, 1 mol/L NaOH, 1 mol/L NaCl, and 1 mol/L HCl). More importantly, the introduction of three light absorbers (i.e., Fe₃O₄, MXene, and lignin) into the S-Fe₃O₄/MXene/lignin@PU sponge shows a synergistic effect in the photothermal heat conversion performance, and the maximum surface temperature reaches 64.4 °C under sunlight irradiation (1.0 kW/m²). The separation flux of the S-Fe₃O₄/MXene/lignin@PU sponge for viscous LT147 vacuum pump oil reaches 35,469 L m^-2 h^-1 under sunlight irradiation, showing an increase of 27.3% compared to that of oil adsorption processes without the photothermal effect. Thus, the rational design of superhydrophobic sponges by introducing proper photothermal heat absorbers provides new insights into facile and cost-effective preparation of sponges for efficient oil/water separation.