The University of Alabama, NEW 490-322

Removal of Oil Spill on Seawater Using Magnetic Ferrites Nanoparticles

Ketley Alves

Removal of Oil Spill on Seawater Using Magnetic Ferrites

Nanoparticles
Ketley Alves Silva a)
College of Arts and Sciences, New College Department, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35401, United States
a) Correspondence should be addressed to Electronic mail: kalvessilva@crimson.ua.edu

The recent oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico is widely acknowledged to be one of the worst ocean oil
spills in world history. Inevitably, spills have raised serious concerns all over the world about the likely environmental
impact of such catastrophic oil spills caused by oil ships accidents at sea or mishaps during loading and unloading of
oil from tankers at seaports [3]. Other concerns are also connected with discharge of oil in areas around oil wells. Those
oil spills can cause ruination of marine ecology life such as birds, mammals, algae, coral and others, beside the health
hazards to the human population located in nearby coastal zones. Furthermore, the economic loss that oil companies
go through resulted from oil-spillage is enormous.
According to Zhu et al (2010)[1], several solutions have been proposed for dealing with the problem of oil
spills. The widely discussed ideas include the use of microorganisms to digest the oil; mechanical means like
skimmers, booms, pumps, mechanical separators etc.; sorbents to remove oil from water through adsorption and/or
absorption; use of chemical dispersants like detergents etc. It is observed that conventional techniques are not efficient
to solve the problem of massive oil spills. Recently, nanotechnology has emerged as a potential source of powerful
solutions to many of the worlds well-known problems. Nikolaidis (1998)[2] emphasizes that although the application
of nanotechnology for oil spill cleanup is still in its nascent stage, it offers great promise for the future. In the last
couple of years, there has been particularly growing interest worldwide in exploring ways of finding suitable solutions
to clean up oil spills through use of nanomaterials. One of the best solutions that have been proposed to deal with the
issue of oil spills is the use of magnetic nanoaparticles (especially nanostructured ferrites) in order to magnetically
remove the oil from seawater.

Spring 2015 (CRN: 17087)

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The University of Alabama, NEW 490-322

Removal of Oil Spill on Seawater Using Magnetic Ferrites Nanoparticles

Ketley Alves

It has been observed that magnetic particle technology finds many applications when it comes to
environmental remediation and wildlife preservation. Nikolaidis (1998)[2] also points out that a variety of products
have been developed, such as ferromagnetic sorbents based on iron coated with polystyrene, polymer coated
vermiculite-iron composites, multiwall carbon nanotube/iron oxide composites, activated carbon/magnetite,
poly(dimethylsiloxane)-coated hematite etc. The magnetic nanostructured ferrites exhibit very hydrophobic
adsorption of oil or hydrocarbon pollutants combined with superior magnetic properties, which enables them to
effectively remove oil from a water-oil mixture by the application of an external magnetic field over the mixture of
the nanoferrites with the oil. These particles are mainly composed of a non-magnetic component in the form of porous
nanoparticles and a magnetic component based on ferromagnetic nanoparticles such as iron, Fe2O3 and Fe3O4
magnetite.
One of the challenging problems associated with oil spills is control of the rapid spreading of oil over the
surface of water and its efficient and quick removal to reduce its ecological impact over a wide area. In order to
accomplish this challenge, Zhu et al (2010)[1] have developed core-shell Fe2O3 magnetic nanoparticles, coated with
polysiloxane layers that exhibit highly hydrophobic and super-oleophilic characteristics. These nanoparticles are
unsinkable and, when brought into contact with the oil floating on the surface of water, quickly and selectively absorb
the oil up to 3.8 times their own weight. After that, the hydrocarbons/oil pollutants can be immediately removed
through core-shell Fe2O3 nanoparticles by the application of an external magnetic field. These oil-absorbent
nanomaterials show considerable high separation selectivity, excellent thermal stability up to 4500 C, high corrosion
resistance and good recycle-ability. The striking feature of this process is that the ferrites nanoparticles can be easily
regenerated by simple ultrasonic washing in ethanol for 5 minutes, and then can be reutilized for many times with the
same purpose.

References

[1] Q Zhu, F. Tao, Q. Pan, Fast and Selective Removal of Oils from Water Surface via Highly Hydrophobic CoreShell Fe2O3 Nanoparticles under Magnetic Field, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, p. 31413146. 2010.

Spring 2015 (CRN: 17087)

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The University of Alabama, NEW 490-322

Removal of Oil Spill on Seawater Using Magnetic Ferrites Nanoparticles

Ketley Alves

[2] G. Nikolaidis, New Magnetic Porous and Oleophilic Co-polymer Used for Oil Clean-up and Oil Recovery from
the Sea and the Environment, Int. Pat. PCT/GR 97/00002, April 30, 1998
[3] Oil Spill, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill. March 31st, 2015.

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