In-depth investigation on the factors affecting the performance of high oil-absorption resin by response surface method

A series of high oil-absorption resins with low cross-linking degree were synthesized by suspension polymerization using stearyl methacrylate (SMA), 2-Ethylhexyl methacrylate (EHMA), and styrene (St) as monomers. Response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) was also applied to determine the optimal parameters that are mainly known to affect their synthesis. Thus, the effects of the monomer mass ratio (EHMA:SMA), the rigid monomer (St) dosage, the porous agent (acetone) dosage, and their pairwise interaction on the resin's oil-absorption capacity were analyzed, highlighting PSES-R2 as the resin with the optimum performance. The pure oil-absorption rates of PSES-R₂ for gasoline, diesel, and kerosene were 11.19 g·g^-1, 16.25 g·g^-1, and 14.84 g·g^-1, respectively, while the oil removal rates from oily wastewater were 98.82%, 65.11%, and 99.63%, respectively.