MoS 2 -roughened hollow-lumen plant fibers with enhanced oil absorption capacity

A facile dipping strategy was performed for roughening the surface of two plant fibers (CGF, Calotropis gigantea fiber; KF, kapok fiber) via nano-sized MoS2 to obtain eco-friendly oil-absorbing materials, MoS2-CGF and MoS2-KF. The results indicated that in addition to the roughened surface topography, MoS2-CGF and MoS2-KF possessed also hydrophobic–oleophilic properties and highly hydrophobic stability to corrosive environments. For twelve selected model oils (including organic solvents), MoS2-roughened fibers had excellent absorption capacity, with the value of 25–100 g/g for MoS2-CGF and 65–135 g/g for MoS2-KF within a few seconds. Furthermore, MoS2-CGF and MoS2-KF exhibited outstanding oil–water selectivity by using trichloromethane and cyclohexane as the model oils. After ten absorption–desorption cycles, a limited reduction in the re-sorption percentage was observed, demonstrating that MoS2-CGF and MoS2-KF had good reusability. By combining the advantages of abundant resource, low cost, high efficiency and environmental friendliness, MoS2-roughened fibers may be promising as efficient oil sorbents for the removal of oil spills in water.