Superhydrophobic Fe3O4/OA Magnetorheological Fluid for Removing Oil Slick from Water Surfaces Effectively and Quickly

Considering the severe impacts on the economic losses caused by oil spills, it is of great significance to develop an oil-absorbent material for removing the oil slick from the water surface effectively. As a new oil-absorbent material, magnetorheological fluid (MRF) has unsinkability, hydrophobicity, and lipophilicity, which could effectively remove the oil slick on the water surface while repelling water. Particularly, the prepared MRF shows a good response to external magnetic field. MRFs show high oil removal capacity in fresh water, deionized water, and salt water with efficiencies up to 94.39, 93.65, and 92.71%, respectively. Besides, Fe 3 O 4 /OA magnetic nanoparticles (MPs) could be reprepared into MRF by simple treatments. After the fifth cycle, the MRF prepared by the recovered Fe 3 O 4 /OA MPs still has high oil removal efficiency, and that means the Fe 3 O 4 /OA MPs has excellent reusability and stability. The method for preparing MRFs provided in this work is simple and effective, and the MRFs have a promising potential for cleaning oil slick.