Paper Title
Novel Oleophilic Adsorbent based on Octanyl Chitosan Schiff Base for oil Spill Removal

Abstract
The present work investigates the preparation of novel oleophilic octanyl chitosan schiff base and its applicability for the adsorption of oil spills from water surface. The developed Schiff base was prepared by simple chemical reaction of chitosan (CH) with octanal (Oct), then crosslinked with glutaraldehyde. Evidences of schiff base formation as well as its chemical structure were verified by using FT-IR spectroscopy and ion exchange capacity (IEC), while both thermal properties and morphological changes were investigated using TGA/DSC and SEM characterization tools, respectively. Results showed that ion exchange capacity (IEC) value recorded 9.95 meq/g in case of native chitosan and decreased gradually to 1.47 meq/g with increasing octanal ratio in the feed mixture.In addition, water uptake and solubility of octanyl chitosan schiff base were decreased compared to native chitosan as a result of the generated hydrophobic/oleophilic characters of the developed schiff base derivative. The obtained results showed improving oil uptake of the developed schiff base compared to native chitosan where it increased with the following affinity order; mineral oil < Kerosene < Diesel < light crude oil < heavy crude oil. The gained results suggest that chitosan schiff base could be used as an oleophilic sorbent for oil spill clean-up. Index Terms - Chitosan; Octanal; Schiff base; Oleophilic character; Oil spill removal.