Durable multifunctional superhydrophobic sponge for oil/water separation and adsorption of volatile organic compounds

Abstract

Inspired by the strong adhesion of mussels, a super-hydrophobic sponge was designed and prepared by a simple and inexpensive one-pot solution immersion method. The prepared superhydrophobic sponge can not only efficiently separate the oil–water mixture, more importantly, but also remove volatile organic compounds in the atmospheric environment. Polydopamine (PDA) enables polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) particles to be firmly and tightly attached to the melamine sponge skeleton, thereby making the hydrophilic sponge superhydrophobic and providing adsorption sites for volatile organic compounds in the air. The synergy enables the sponge/PDA/PDVB to quickly adsorb oils and organic substances, and it has high stability and capacity even after 20 cycles. In addition, superhydrophobic sponges can still perform outstanding adsorption performance even under highly acidic and alkaline environments. Meanwhile, the static adsorption capacity of the sponge/PDA/PDVB for gaseous toluene is 5.7 times that of activated carbon. Compared with pure PDVB, the super-hydrophobic sponge in the dynamic experiment has a penetration time increased from 6 to 390 min, which is 65 times longer than that of the PDVB, and the adsorption performance has been greatly improved. Therefore, our strategy may achieve a new effect, which can quickly and easily separate oil–water mixtures and remove volatile gaseous pollutants, and it can provide potential options for practical applications