Salt sacrificial template strategy and in-situ growth of lamellar La(OH)3 on a novel PVDF foam for the simultaneous removal of phosphates and oil pollution without VOCs emission

•In situ formation of La(OH)3 nanoparticles in PVDF foam for the first time.•The experimental samples were prepared by melting method and sacrificial template method.•The process was pollution-free and no organic reagent was needed.•Through a series of tests, the adsorbent material has a good stability and mechanical properties. Applying polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) monolith for phosphates removal can improve the operability of the adsorption process compared with some other powder nanomaterials. However, as the commonly used synthesis strategy, non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) was deemed not environmentally friendly enough since the dissolution of PVDF often involved volatile organic compounds (VOCs). This article designed a salt sacrificial template method to fabricate a 3D porous PVDF monolith, and then in-situ growth of lamellar La(OH)3 on the PVDF foam was realized to enhance the adsorption affinity to phosphates pollution. No VOCs were used or released during the whole synthesis process. The adsorption for phosphates was as high as 56.2 mg g−1, and easy reusability of the novel PVDF monolith was realized. In addition, this PVDF-La(OH)3 foam exhibited good adsorption properties in both oil and water environments, which implied it could not only adsorb phosphates in actual water samples but also separate oil contaminants from water. All these implied that this PVDF-La(OH)3 foam could be a potential candidate for large-scale industrial adsorption and separation of phosphates. This PVDF-La(OH)3 foam could be a potential candidate for large-scale industrial adsorption and separation of phosphates.