Polystyrene Macroporous Magnetic Nanocomposites Synthesized Through Deep Eutectic Solvent-in-Oil High Internal Phase Emulsions and FeO Nanoparticles for Oil Sorption

In this work, we report a nonaqueous one-step method to synthesize polystyrene macroporous magnetic nanocomposites through high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) formulated with the deep eutectic solvent (DES) composed of urea:choline chloride (U:ChCl, in a 2:1 molar ratio) as the internal phase and co-stabilized with mixtures of Span 60 surfactant and non-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles (FeO NPs). The porous structure and the magnetic and lipophilic properties of the nanocomposite materials were easily tailored by varying the amount of FeO NPs (0, 2, 5 and 10 wt %) and the surfactant Span 60 (0, 5, 10, and 20 wt %) used in the precursor emulsion. The resultant nanocomposite polyHIPEs exhibit high sorption capacity toward different oils (hexane, gasoline, and vegetable oil) due to their high porosity, interconnectivity, and hydrophobic surface. It was observed that the oil sorption capacity was improved when the amount of surfactant decreased and FeO NPs increased in HIPE formulation. Therefore, polyHIPE formulated with 5 and 10 wt % Span 60 and FeO NPs, respectively, showed the highest oil sorption capacities of 4.151, 3.556, and 3.266 g g for gasoline, hexane, and vegetable oil, respectively. In addition, the magnetic monoliths were reused for more than ten sorption/desorption cycles without losing their oil sorption capacity.