Recently developed montmorillonite clay-based aerogels have attracted an attention owing to their
highly porous internal structure. This study deals with the design of experiments applied for preparation
of clay aerogel polymer composites and their testing and optimization for oil spill sorption. Three design
variables have been chosen for experimentation, i.e. the amounts of montmorillonite (MMT), polyvinyl
alcohol (PVA) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Based on the experimental design the response surface
models have been constructed. The objective for optimization was to maximize the performances of
materials for sorption of dodecane and motor oil. To this end, the multi-objective optimization problem
has been solved using NSGA-II optimization algorithm. The aerogel sorbent prepared under the optimal
conditions of 2.109% w/v PVA, 2.678% w/v MMT and 0.210% w/v SDS bestowed the best sorption performance
for both dodecane (23.63 g/g) and motor oil (25.84 g/g). Finally, the hydrophobic aerogel sorbent
has been prepared using trimethoxy(octadecyl)-silane TMOS (C21H46O3Si). The modified material with
TMOS disclosed good sorption capacities for dodecane (10.55 g/g) and motor oil (12.25 g/g). The retention
profile test has revealed that about 1.06–14.91% of liquid hydrocarbons can be recovered by free drainage.
The advanced recovery of oily liquids has been achieved by centrifugation technique being of 42.29–
66.02%. Likewise, the hydrophobic aerogel (modified with TMOS) has showed a good sorption capacity for
dodecane (9.24 g/g) in the presence of water (W-test). In addition, the clay aerogel polymer composites
have been characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared
(FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique.