| Abstract: | Herein, the oil/water separation property of four polyethylene (PE) foams with two different volume expansion ratios including 15 and 30 times was studied. We found that the PE‐30‐1 foam was the best absorbent materials among these four samples, which was also superior to the commercially available products. It demonstrated high oil absorption capacities, as well as high oil/water selectivity, which was due to its small average pore size and high porosity. In addition, this work also reports two rapid and straightforward methods to fabricate PE‐30‐1‐ZIF‐8 composite with enhanced compressive property, an encouraging absorption capacity for different organic solvents, reaching 59 times of its own weight for chloroform, as well as increased oil–water selectivity of the system. Comparing with the PE foam, the organic solvent absorption capacities for PE‐ZIF‐8‐sono composite foams were improved by 6.4%, 29%, 9.1%, and 12% for chloroform, acetone, toluene and oleic acid, respectively, while the corresponding improvement for PE‐ZIF‐8‐Me(OH) was about 7.5%, 28%, 14%, and 15%, respectively. These PE‐ZIF‐8 foams could reach the requirement for oil spill cleanup, suggesting its great potential for this type of application. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:1354–1361 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers |
