Abstract Oil spills into water have been an environmental concern since the beginning of large-scale oil extraction. In this study, flexible open-cell polyurethane (PU) foams with added microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) were formulated and chemically modified with organosilane for use as an absorbent system for oil spill cleanup in water. The influence of cellulose concentration on mechanical properties and chemical treatment with organosilane was evaluated. The primary findings indicate that the surface treatment of the solid fraction of the foams was effective, as indicated by the contact angle, increasing the hydrophobicity of the samples. Because of the increased roughness of the PU solid fraction and the cellulose reactivity, the mechanical compressive strength and thickness of the organosilane layer increased with increasing MCC content. However, the higher the MCC content in the composition, the higher was the density, which reduced the sorption capacity of the samples.

In this study, the effects of incorporating recycled photopolymer-plate residues from a packaging flexography process into polyester-glass fiber composites were examined. Ternary composites with an unsaturated polyester matrix with elastomer particles from recycled photopolymer-plate residues were evaluated using two types of glass fibers: in the forms of a fabric with bidirectional fibers and a blanket with multidirectional fibers. The composites were prepared by hand lay-up lamination using different rubber contents (0, 2.5, 5, and 10 wt% based on the polyester resin mass fraction), and were characterized for their void content, flexural and impact strengths, and dynamic mechanical properties. Primary results indicated that the incorporation of the rubber particles increased the difficulty of lamination, while promoting greater void formation with higher filler content. The rubber particles decreased the impact resistance properties but did not reduce the flexural strength or storage modulus, indicating that despite the elastomeric composition, this residue from the photopolymer plates showed a reinforcing rather than toughening character.

ABSTRACT The growth of oil exploration and transport in marine environments brings concern over potential environmental disasters caused by oil spills. Thus, various materials are being developed and studied in order to minimize environmental impacts caused by these oil spills. Among these materials, the use of sorbents has appeared as a great potential technique for the treatment of effluents, by separating and collecting oil in the aqueous medium. This work describes the development of a sorbent system based on acetylated microfibrillated cellulose. Initially, cellulose fibers were modified by an acetylation reaction and thereafter, by a mechanical process using a wheel mill grinding. To produce the sorbent system, fibers were coated by three different types of envelopes to prevent leakage during the sorption experiment. Main results indicate a higher oil sorption by sorbents with higher oil viscosity and higher grammage of the envelope. Acetylated microfibrillated cellulose showed low water adsorption and high selectivity to oil and greater oil sorption values than commercially sorbent currently used, based on polypropylene fibers.