Smart Sand by Surface Engineering: Toward Controllable Oil/Water Separation

Sand, an abundant resource from the nature, is a promising candidate for oil/water separation. Herein, raw sand was designed with switchable surface wettability to enable recyclability and versatility in practical The “smart” fabricated by grafting pH-responsive poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) oleophilic/hydrophobic octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTS) onto its surface. decorated can be used as oil sorbent controllable sorption desorption response different pHs, well filter selectively separate either or water on demand. This novel design offers intelligent, low-cost, large-scale, highly efficient route potentially settle issues of industrial oily wastewater spill.