Effective clean-up of organic liquid contaminants including BTEX, fuels, and organic solvents from the environment by poly(alkoxysilane) sorbents

• 1,8-bis(triethoxysilyl) octane based sorbents were prepared.
• The influence of the linear diol length on polymer properties was investigated.
• Increasing chain length of the diol monomers increase the swelling capacity.
• The excellent clean-up of BTEX and MTBE by synthesized sorbents can be achieved.
• Sorbents have perfect reusability features for the repeated clean-up applications.

Novel cross-linked poly(alkoxysilane)s, which can be used for the removal of organic liquid contaminants from water, were synthesized in one step, in a solvent free reaction medium, at moderately high temperature without using a catalyst. The synthesized polymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), solid-state 13C and 29Si cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) methods and elemental analysis. The swelling features of the poly(alkoxysilane)s were investigated in organic solvents and oils, such as dichloromethane, benzene, toluene, xylene, methyl tertiary butyl ether, and also some fuel derivatives, such as gasoline and euro diesel. All polymers have high-fast solvent uptake abilities, good reusability and thermal stability. The swelling features of the synthesized cross-linked polymers were evaluated by the swelling test, absorption-desorption kinetics. Thus, the results propose that cross-linked poly(alkoxysilane)s are suitable for the absorption of oil-organic pollutants from the water surface.

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