EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Wool aerogel created from wool waste fibers is a potentially viable eco-friendly solution to oil spill clean-ups and thermal insulating material primarily due to is naturally oleophilic nature and insulating properties. Repurposing wool waste also allow us to tackle another issue this waste poses: decreasing landfill spaces. This study aims to develop wool aerogels using wool waste fibers and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a cross-linking binder. The synthesized aerogels exhibit high porosity (97.73 – 99.63 %) and low densities (0.004 – 0.023 g/cm3). After being coated with methyltriethyloxysilane (MTEOS), the aerogels exhibit great hydrophobicity with contact angles up to 138°. Using pseudo-first and pseudo-second order models to study the kinetics of the aerogels’ oil absorption performance, it is found that the oil absorption kinetics is better modelled after the pseudo-second order model. The best performing wool-based aerogel recorded an oil absorption capacity of 136.2 g/g, an estimated 9.1 and 15.3 times better than commercial counterparts, polypropylene mat and nonwoven polypropylene respectively. Additionally, a low thermal conductivity (0.0333 w/m.K) can be achieved, making it a good thermal insulating material. The promising results obtained demonstrate that the wool fiber as a great waste material capable of generating high engineering value and provides a novel alternative in solving environmental impacts plagued by oil spills and landfill-demanding wool waste.