Iranian Natural Zeolite Particle Modification: Green Synthesis, Characterization, and Oil Spill Remediation

In the present work, iranian natural zeolite particles (nz) as an abundant and low-cost resource were modified by chemical covalent attachments of commercially available stearic acid (sa) with tunable hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties. the versatile, simple, and green technique of mechanogriding was performed for the hydrophobic derivatisation of nz. the nz and as-prepared modified particles were thoroughly characterized by fourier transform infrared (ft-ir) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (sem), powder x-ray diffraction (xrd), thermogravimetric analysis (tga), brunauer-emmett-teller (bet), barret-joyner-halenda (bjh), and static water contact angle (wca) measurements. tg-dta results revealed the high thermal stability of the modified sample up to 490 °c. the flake-like structures of functionalized nz were discrete and no longer aggregated due to modification. the absorbing function of the modified nz was evaluated by its removal of oil from a stable crude oil emulsion in water.