Clean-up of oily liquids, fuels and organic solvents from the contaminated water fields using poly(propylene glycol) based organogels

•Spreading oily liquids can contaminate fresh water and soil.•Highly absorptive PPG-ICS networks were successfully prepared for oily liquids.•Outstanding MTBE cleanup from water bodies by PPG-ICS organogels.•High rate of absorption and desorption operation.•Effective reusable organogels at least for ten cycles.

Organogels with high and fast absorption properties, as well as reusability functions, were successfully prepared through the condensation reactions of different molecular weights of poly(propylene glycol)s (PPG)s and tris[3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl] isocyanurate (ICS). The characterization of these organogels was determined by solid-state 13C and 29Si cross polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to describe the thermal behavior of the prepared organogels. Obtained organogels are reusable and can absorb a large amount of oils, such as dichloromethane (DCM), tetrahydrofuran (THF), methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), toluene, benzene, acetone, and gasoline. The capacity of the synthesized organogels did not change in either pure organic liquids or in organic liquid/water mixtures, these can be used at least ten times without loss of capacity.

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