Steam explosion and esterification modification of rice straw for oil spill absorption material

A natural organic oil spill adsorption material was developed by steam explosion and esterification modification of rice straw. The oil-absorption capacity and water-absorption capacity of the raw rice straw were 5.66 g·g-1 and 7.59g·g-1, respectively. The conditions of esterification modification of rice straw were optimized. The optimal reaction temperature, catalyst concentration and reaction time were 80 ℃, 0.75%, 6 h, respectively. The oil-absorption capacity and water-absorption capacity of the modified rice straw were 8.54 g·g-1 and 0.10 g·g-1, respectively. Furthermore, the rice straw before and after modification were characterized by BET, XRD, FT-IR. The modified rice straw had larger pore diameter after steam explosion, appearance of non-crystallizing state and acetyl group of characteristic peak after esterification, which proved the feasibility of esterification modification of rice straw.