Fabrication and characterization of modified ZnO-kapok fiber for separating surfactant-free oil-in-water emulsions
. Natural sorbents have several benefits, including high sorption capacity, superior biodegradability, and low cost. Kapok is one of the natural fibers that can be used as absorbent material. These distinctive qualities give kapok fibers greater oil sorption capacity than other oil sorbents curren...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/10912/1/P16582_3af4dee0f0b32f190b7da4854c6aba04.pdf http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/10912/ https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0183201 |
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| Summary: | . Natural sorbents have several benefits, including high sorption capacity, superior biodegradability, and low cost.
Kapok is one of the natural fibers that can be used as absorbent material. These distinctive qualities give kapok fibers
greater oil sorption capacity than other oil sorbents currently on the market. However, it is difficult to hold oil properly due
to its waxy coating and smooth fiber surface. Thus, in this study, the rough surface fiber has been coated using ZnO via the
hydrothermal method. Considering that ZnO is instinctually hydrophilic, this modification of the fiber compounds increases
the adsorption of oil in fiber. The surface morphology interaction has been proven with an experiment using a scanning
electron microscope (SEM) for morphology investigation, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for identifying
organic or inorganic materials, and physical interaction (contact angle analysis). The results obtained display a significant
difference between modified kapok fiber with ZnO and raw kapok fiber. The FTIR analysis shows that the modified kapok
exhibits the peak's level of intensity at 3268.88 cm-1
(stretching vibration peak of surface –OH decreases obviously as
compared with that of raw kapok fiber, an absorption peak (symmetric stretching vibration of Zn–O–Zn) is observed at
652.28 cm-1. These results suggested that the whole sum of –OH was diminished, and hydrophobic ZnO nanoparticles were
developed on the kapok fiber's surface. A surface morphology analysis using SEM shows that ZnO particles are present on
the kapok fiber surface while comparing it to the raw kapok. Modified kapok shows a higher contact angle (138°) compared
to raw kapok (125.5°). This can conclude that the kapok fiber modification was successfully achieved using the
hydrothermal method |
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