Multifunctional polypyrrole/MXene-wrapped sponge with synergistic solar and joule-heating effect for efficient adsorption and all-weather recovery of crude oil

Offshore oil leakage can cause huge economic losses and seriously disrupt the ecological balance. A novel approach to all-weather recovery of crude oil with high viscosity is achieved through day and night workto ensurefaster recovery. Herein, polypyrole (Ppy) covalently integrated with MXene nanosheet was connected to the melamine sponge (MS) by physico-chemical cross-linking method, exhibiting a crude oil absorbent with outstanding photothermal and electrothermal conversion performance (78.9 ℃ under 1.0 kW/m2, 62.3 ℃ in 5 V). The stable superhydrophobic surface (WCA≈153.4°), combined with the dual-energy conversion properties of absorbent provides the synergistic effect for efficient crude oil recovery performance. This is demonstrated by the fact that the maximum surface temperature can be heated to 87.0 ℃ in 3 min, and the absorption weight of crude oil to be improved to 14.26 g in 10 min. Additionally, the Ppy/MXene-wrapped sponge has high thermal stability and flame-retardant properties. Therefore, this functional absorbent has promising way for the disposal of offshore crude oil.