A versatile approach to produce superhydrophobic materials used for oil–water separation

Abstract

Designing functional materials that can be used for oil–water separation in an efficient and cost-effective process is highly desired yet still challenging. Herein, three functional materials used for oil–water separation are readily produced by a dip coating process. Three typical porous materials including copper mesh, fabric, and sponge were dipped into the solution of polyfluorowax-hydrophobic SiO2 to alter their surface texture and chemistry, allowing them to exhibit superhydrophobic property. It was found that the resulting superhydrophobic copper mesh and fabric can be used as a membrane to separate oil–water mixture efficiency; while the obtained superhydrophobic sponge was demonstrated as an oil sorbent scaffold to absorb oil from the oil–water mixture selectively. More importantly, these superhydrophobic materials can retain their oil–water separation efficiency even after 10 cycles of oil–water separation.