A rapid, facile and practical fabrication of robust PDMS@starch coatings for oil-water separation

Abstract

Abstract PDMS has been widely used to develop oil-water separation materials in the past few decades owing to its strong adhesion, low-surface-energy, and durability. However, traditional curing methods for PDMS suffer from time-consuming and space-limiting, therefore, a rapid and facile fabrication of PDMS based materials should be imperative to be developed for scaled-up production. Inspired by this, we employed PDMS and starch to prepare PDMS@starch composite coatings and hot air gun as a time-saving and cost-effective curing technique was applied. The coatings were effectively used to separate emulsions and oil-water mixtures, as well as exhibited excellent resistance to various water solutions owing to its high hydrophobicity. Moreover, the chemical and mechanical durability of the coatings further show a wide spectrum of envisagement in industrial application of special wetting materials.