Fabrication of highly hydrophobic organic–inorganic hybrid magnetic polysulfone microcapsules: A lab-scale feasibility study for removal of oil and organic dyes from environmental aqueous samples

[Display omitted] •A series of hydrophobic groups modified materials were successfully synthesized.•Magnetic PSF microcapsules containing above materials were successfully prepared.•These microcapsules have a relatively high adsorption capacity for crude oil.•The proposed sorbents can remove oil and Sudan I pollutants effectively.•These microcapsules can be collected from aqueous samples under magnetic field. In this work, three kinds of organic–inorganic hybrid materials (vinyl benzene linear polymer modified SBA-15, attapulgite and halloysite nanotubes) in the shape of powder and the corresponding magnetic polysulfone microcapsules were developed for removal of oil and dyes from environmental aqueous samples, respectively. As determined from the oil and dye adsorption studies, the developed magnetic polysulfone microcapsules exhibited high adsorption capacity of 13.8–17.3g/g for oil. The prepared functionalized materials and the corresponding microcapsules can remove 85.0–91.6% and 81.8–87.8% Sudan I in 80min and 7.6h, respectively. The results showed a significant improvement in their adsorption capacities and removal efficiencies compared to the parent matrices, indicating that the introducing of the vinyl benzene linear polymer was a major factor in the removal of the hydrophobic pollutants. At the same time, the adsorption capacity for the investigated pollutants also depended on the textural feature of matrix itself. In view of the utilization of low-cost clay minerals (attapulgite and halloysite nanotubes), these proposed functionalized materials and the corresponding magnetic polysulfone microcapsules had a great promise to be used as an efficient sorbent for removal of pollutants from environmental aqueous samples.