Solar-assisted, highly efficient, and in situ recovery of crude oil spill by FeCo${}_2$S${}_4$-modified sponge

Rapid cleanup of oil spill is becoming a great challenge since crude oil is hard to clean up by conventional porous oil sorbents because of its high viscosity. Herein, novel fabrication of a hydrophobic/oleophilic and photothermal polydopamine (PDA)/FeCo${}_2$S${}_4$/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coated polyurethane (PU) sponge using chemical polymerization and dip-coating methods is reported. The optimized composite sponge exhibits high hydrophobicity, high absorption capacity for oils and organic liquids, excellent chemical resistance, and stable recycling. Furthermore, PDA/FeCo${}_2$S${}_4$/PDMS@PU sponge shows outstanding photothermal conversion capability. Under sunlight irradiation, crude oil viscosity can be reduced by two orders of magnitude due to the rapid temperature rise in PDA/FeCo${}_2$S${}_4$/PDMS@PU sponge. In addition, a method of in situ pumping for uninterrupted recovery of oil spills from the water surface is designed. Benefiting from great mechanical performance and photothermal conversion capacity, the PDA/FeCo${}_2$S${}_4$/PDMS@PU sponge can be regarded as an ideal sorbent candidate for the collection of crude oil and treatment of large-scale oil spill disasters. (© 2022 Wiley‐VCH GmbH)