Wood Nanotechnology for Strong, Mesoporous, and Hydrophobic Biocomposites for Selective Separation of Oil/Water Mixtures

Tremendous efforts have been dedicated to developing effective and eco-friendly approaches for separation of oil–water mixtures. Challenges remain in terms of complex processing, high material cost, low efficiency, and scale-up problems. Inspired by the tubular porosity and hierarchical organization of wood, a strong, mesoporous, and hydrophobic three-dimensional wood structure is created for selective oil/water separation. A delignified wood template with hydrophilic characteristics is obtained by removal of lignin. The delignified wood template is further functionalized by a reactive epoxy–amine system. This wood/epoxy biocomposite reveals hydrophobic/oleophilic functionality and shows oil absorption as high as 15 g/g. The wood/epoxy biocomposite has a compression yield strength and modulus up to 18 and 263 MPa, respectively, at a solid volume fraction of only 12%. This is more than 20 times that of cellulose-based foams/aerogels reconstructed from cellulose nanofibrils. The favorable performance is asc...