Ultralight and multifunctional PVDF/SiO2@GO nanofibrous aerogel for efficient harsh environmental oil-water separation and crude oil absorption

The accumulative disasters about oil spills and industrial emissions create increasingly environmental problems, and high-performance absorbent materials have attracted wide attention to providing available solution. Herein, polyvinylidene fluoride/SiO 2 @graphene oxide (PVDF/SiO 2 @GO) aerogels were prepared by cross-linking of the electrospun PVDF/SiO 2 nanofibers and GO skeleton. By changing the content of SiO 2 nanoparticles in the PVDF nanofibers, the porosity and surface roughness of the composite aerogels could be controlled. Compared with PVDF@GO aerogel, the PVDF/SiO 2 @GO (PSG) aerogels had higher mechanical properties and hydrophobicity . And, the PSG-2 aerogel (1 wt% SiO 2 contained in nanofibers) exhibited stable structure, excellent oil absorption capacity (129–264 g g −1 ), great flame retardancy and reusability . After being pretreated with strong acid and alkali, it remained strong hydrophobicity, indicating it possessed excellent chemical resistance. More importantly, it could also separate oil-water mixture by gravity under harsh environment (strong acid/alkali), which exhibited excellent separation performance with flux of 42402 L m −2  h −1 (chloroform/water mixture) and separation efficiency of 99.96%. Moreover, it could clean up viscous crude oil rapidly by photothermal effect, and the crude oil absorption time of heated PSG-2 was reduced by 99.65%. The PSG aerogels provide a new choice for efficient and continuous harsh environmental oil-water separation and crude oil absorption.