Oil sorption and retention capacities of thermally-bonded hybrid nonwovens prepared from cotton, kapok, milkweed and polypropylene fibers.

This work reports on a series of thermally-bonded, hybrid and oil-sorbent nonwovens developed from binary and tertiary mixing of cotton, kapok, and three varieties of milkweed fibers (Asclepias Syriaca, Calotropis Procera and Calotropis Gigantea) and polypropylene fibers. The physical and chemical properties of the fibers were investigated to examine their oleophilic character. It was observed that all the fiber surfaces were covered with natural wax. Further, kapok and milkweed fibers were found to have less cell wall thickness and high void ratio. Oil sorption and retention characteristics of these fibers were studied in loose fibrous form as well as in structured assembly form (thermally-bonded nonwovens) using high density oil and diesel oil. The effects of fiber diameter, fiber cross-sectional shape, fiber surface area and porosity on the oil sorption behavior were discussed. An excellent and a selective oil sorption behavior of milkweed fibers (Calotropis Procera and Calotropis Gigantea) blended with cotton and polypropylene fibers were observed. The maximum oil sorption capacity of the developed thermal bonded nonwoven was 40.16 g/g for high density (HD) oil and 23.00 g/g for diesel oil. Further, a high porosity combined with high surface area played a major role in deciding the oil sorption and retention characteristics.

Study of oil sorption behavior of filled and structured fiber assemblies made from polypropylene, kapok and milkweed fibers.

This article reports on oil sorption behavior of fiber assemblies made up of single natural and synthetic fibers as well as blend of natural and synthetic fibers when tested with high density oil and diesel oil. A series of filled fiber assemblies were prepared from 100% polypropylene, kapok, and milkweed fibers and another series of bonded structured fiber assemblies were prepared from a 70/30 blend of kapok and polypropylene fibers and a 70/30 blend of milkweed and polypropylene fibers. It was observed that the porosity of the fiber assemblies played a very important role in determining its oil sorption capacity. The polypropylene fiber assembly exhibited the highest sorption capacity (g/g) followed by the kapok and milkweed fiber assemblies at porosity <0.98. At higher porosities (above 0.98), polypropylene filled fiber assembly has poor sorption capacity due to large sized inter fiber pore. The kapok and milkweed fibers have intra fiber porosities of 0.81 and 0.83, respectively. All the fiber assemblies showed higher oil sorption capacity with the high density oil as compared to the diesel oil. As the kapok and milkweed fiber have low cellulose content, hence their slow degradation is an advantage in fresh and marine water applications. The good sorption capacity of kapok and milkweed fiber assemblies along with their bio-degradable nature offer great scope for structuring them into fiber assemblies with large porosity and uniform pores to have efficient oil sorbents.

Extending the scope of chromium-manganese redox-coupled reactions: a one-pot synthesis of benzoxazoles.

A critically important strategy for synthetic chemistry is the development of "domino" processes: those capable of concatenating multiple transformations into a single step. Such transformations not only provide an increase in synthetic efficiency, but also imply the development of a significant degree of mechanistic understanding. We report herein a new domino reaction, in which a chromium-manganese redox couple is employed both to catalytically reduce an o-hydroxy nitroarene and to oxidatively cyclize a subsequently formed imine. We find that the reaction is most effective for starting o-hydroxy nitroarenes with a strongly electron-withdrawing group at the para position.