Synthesis and characterization of a novel high-oil-absorbing resin

A high-oil-absorbing resin, which was a low crosslinking resin, was synthesized by conventional suspension copolymerization in this study. The effects of the monomer ratio, crosslinker, initiator, ratio of water to oil, and defined optimum reaction conditions were studied. The highest oil absorptivity of the resin was about 11.5 g/g in diesel and the oil-absorption saturation time was 3 days when the best process conditions were as follows: ratio of styrene to ethylene–propylene–diene terpolymer = 40/60 w/w, amount of crosslinker divinylbenzene = 1.0 wt %, amount of benzoyl peroxide = 1.0 wt %; proportion of gelatin to calcium phosphate = 0.2 g/0.1 g, stirring speed = 500 r/min, and proportion of water to oil = 15 : 1. By using such methods as infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and other methods, we studied the oil-absorbing resin structure, oil-absorption rate, oil-absorption saturation time, and oil-absorption rate twice. The oil-absorbing resins were used repeatedly through the extraction of ethanol. The experiment results show little effect on the oil-absorption properties. The oil-absorption rate constant was evaluated for diesel, and the oil-absorbing process obeyed the first-order kinetics equation. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010