Spill oil treatment has drawn much attention in the field of
environmental science and technology, as ecosystem contamination from spilled oil released into seas and rivers has been a great
concern for the last several decades. Various techniques are
currently available for selectively removing oil from water,
and it is well established that among the various oil removalby water becomes much less efficient for oil absorption when compared to that of the dry absorbent, or the pre-absorbed oil can be
replaced by water, resulting in the release of oil into the environ-
ment. Either the fibre of hydrophobic materials (e.g., polypropy-
lene) can be used as an absorbent, or one can provide
hydrophobicity to a non-hydrophobic porous material by using
thin layers of hydrophobic molecules [18]. Oil absorbents should
also be inexpensive, as a large quantity of absorbent is generally
needed for removing spilled oil released into the ecosystem after
an accident. It is also worth mentioning that most commercial
absorbents can rarely be recycled. Therefore, the development of
recyclable absorbents would be beneficial in the treatment of
spilled oil.