Microwave-Assisted Degradation of Unsaturated Polyester Resin into HDPE-Modified Aerogels for Oil Adsorption and Oil/Water Separation.
- 1Key Laboratory of Oil & Gas Fine Chemicals, Ministry of Education, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, School of Chemical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China.
- 2School of Mechanical Engineering & Center for Post-Doctoral Studies of Mechanical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China.
Abstract
Thermosetting unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) is difficult to reprocess because curing generates an irreversible three-dimensional network. Here, cured UPR was treated in a microwave-assisted hydrazine hydrate/NaOH medium at 70 °C for 30 min to produce a water-swellable UPR-derived product (NUPR). NUPR was combined with glutaraldehyde, subjected to freeze-thaw processing and freeze-drying, and subsequently modified with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to fabricate porous aerogels. FTIR results were consistent with partial cleavage of ester-containing structures, while TGA and SEM revealed changes in thermal behavior and morphology. Among the tested aerogels, AAS-6 exhibited a density of approximately 0.036 g cm⁻³ and a porosity of 96.6%. After HDPE treatment, the aerogel exhibited a water contact angle of 135.2° while maintaining rapid oil wetting. Its 5 min liquid uptake for the tested oils and organic solvents ranged from 20.14 to 38.31 g g⁻¹. After ten adsorption-regeneration cycles, 89-96% of the initial oil uptake was retained, depending on the oil, whereas uptake of the tested volatile solvents remained comparatively unchanged under the respective regeneration conditions. H-6 also enabled free-oil uptake from water and gravity-driven treatment of surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions, yielding high separation efficiencies and markedly reduced dispersed-droplet signals after filtration. These results demonstrate a route for coupling the chemical conversion of cured UPR with fabrication of porous materials for oil uptake and W/O emulsion separation.
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BibTeX
@article{he2026microwaveassisted,
title = {{Microwave-Assisted Degradation of Unsaturated Polyester Resin into HDPE-Modified Aerogels for Oil Adsorption and Oil/Water Separation.}},
author = {Shixue He and Qianqian Qian and Daning Lang and Ronglan Wu},
journal = {Gels (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3390/gels12100922},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42929956},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Microwave-Assisted Degradation of Unsaturated Polyester Resin into HDPE-Modified Aerogels for Oil Adsorption and Oil/Water Separation.
AU - Shixue He
AU - Qianqian Qian
AU - Daning Lang
AU - Ronglan Wu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
JO - Gels (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/gels12100922
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42929956
AB - Thermosetting unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) is difficult to reprocess because curing generates an irreversible three-dimensional network. Here, cured UPR was treated in a microwave-assisted hydrazine hydrate/NaOH medium at 70 °C for 30 min to produce a water-swellable UPR-derived product (NUPR). NUPR was combined with glutaraldehyde, subjected to freeze-thaw processing and freeze-drying, and subsequently modified with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to fabricate porous aerogels. FTIR results were consistent with partial cleavage of ester-containing structures, while TGA and SEM revealed changes in thermal behavior and morphology. Among the tested aerogels, AAS-6 exhibited a density of approximately 0.036 g cm⁻³ and a porosity of 96.6%. After HDPE treatment, the aerogel exhibited a water contact angle of 135.2° while maintaining rapid oil wetting. Its 5 min liquid uptake for the tested oils and organic solvents ranged from 20.14 to 38.31 g g⁻¹. After ten adsorption-regeneration cycles, 89-96% of the initial oil uptake was retained, depending on the oil, whereas uptake of the tested volatile solvents remained comparatively unchanged under the respective regeneration conditions. H-6 also enabled free-oil uptake from water and gravity-driven treatment of surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions, yielding high separation efficiencies and markedly reduced dispersed-droplet signals after filtration. These results demonstrate a route for coupling the chemical conversion of cured UPR with fabrication of porous materials for oil uptake and W/O emulsion separation.
SN - 2310-2861
ER -