DEVELOPMENT OF A LOW-COST OLEOPHILIC ADSORBENT BASED ON AMINATED CHITOSAN - POLY (BUTYL ACRYLATE) GRAFT COPOLYMER FOR MARINE OIL SPILL CLEANUP.

In the present study, a new low-cost oil adsorbent was prepared based on graft copolymerization of commercial chitosan biopolymer derivative. Aminated Chitosan (AmCS) was prepared from chitin which initially extracted from the marine waste sources, followed by amination step using p-benzoquinone (PBQ) as activation agent and ethylenediamine (EDA) as amine source. The prepared AmCS was grafted with a hydrophobic butyl acrylate (ButA) monomer via a free radical polymerization process, and the resultant grafted copolymer was characterized using FT-IR, TGA, DSC, and SEM characterization tools. The oleophilic character of the grafted copolymer was investigated using oil uptake measurements. Moreover, oil/water- contact angle measurements (wettability) displayed that the hydrophobic and oleophilic characters of the grafted copolymer were enhanced after the grafting process and recorded maximum values 115? and 28? using water and crude oil droplets respectively compared to 52? and 82? in case of the native aminated chitosan. Evaluation of the oil spill cleanup process was also optimized using crude oil- artificial seawater system under different adsorption conditions. Oil adsorption values were increased gradually from 49 to 84% for the grafted AmCS samples with increasing the oil viscosity in the following order; gasoil < mobil-1 oil < light crude oil < heavy crude oil using 0.1g of the adsorbent sample, while the native AmCS only increased from 17.5 to 37% at the same adsorption conditions. The results obtained clearly suggested that the developed AmCS-poly (ButA) graft copolymer could be applied as a new low-cost oil adsorbent material for marine oil spill cleanup technologies.