Synthesis of Oil Spill Sorbents Based on Cellulose Derivatives

In this work, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) was used to synthesize hydroxypropylcellulose acrylate (HPCA) macromonomer by esterification of HPC with acryloyl chloride in homogenous solution of DMF. Then the produced HPCA monomer was copolymerized with ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA) in presence of two types of crosslinkers to produce oil gel. Several parameters were considered, namely, monomers feed ratio, type and concentration of the applied crosslinkers. The chemical structures of both HPC and HPCA were confirmed by using FTIR and ¹H NMR spectroscopic analyses. Also, the thermal properties of the crosslinked oil absorbents were investigated by using TGA. Furthermore, morphological propoeries of these crosslinked sorbers were studied through SEM and their swelling efficiency was thoroughly investigated in heavy and light oil.