I have prepared an inorganic-organic hybrid material which is of sponge like nature for selective oil uptake studies. the oil can be released easily by squeezing. Is it oil absorption or oil adsorption?
Hello Minju,
The phenomenon occuring is absorbtion. Adsorption, you will not see much uptake of the oil.
Regards
Anurag
I'd suppose it depends on how much of the material is able to be removed by simply mechanically squeezing the sponge. If ALL of the oil can be removed, that's absorption. The usual analogy is that a wet sponge absorbs the majority of the substance (water). However, a sponge will still remain damp once squeezed because of the water molecules that have ADsorbed to the surface . You're most likely looking to use 'absorbed', especially if wringing or squeezing removes the oil. However, it would maybe be prudent to have a microscopic look at the surface of your sponge to see if you've got any adsorbed oil on the surface (about a molecule or so in thickness, normally).
Hello @minju the absorption or adsorption phenomenon depends on the materials used. It depends upon porosity of the materials used. If the porosity is not uniform and has irregular pattern. The materials tend to absorb rather than adsorb. In your case you are using organic as well as inorganic materials so TEM analysis will confirm and BET analysis will as do. Thank you
Thank you all.. the hydrophilic parent material shows BET ~ 30 m2/g. but after made to hydrophobic my BET analysis doesn't show any surface area.
Since i am using silica as the inorganic part and its a mesoporous material, will the surface porosity play any role in oil adsorption or is it simply because of the spongy nature of the material that oil is getting absorbed?
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