Facile preparation of superhydrophobic porous wood for continuous oil-water separation

Abstract

Preparation of superhydrophobic porous wood is an important avenue for realizing efficient oil-water separation, but the reported methods require the removal of hemicellulose and lignin as well as energy consuming freeze-drying process. In the present study, we report a facile strategy for cost-effective, convenient, simple, and highly effective preparation of polymethylsiloxane (POMS) modified wood. The resulting POMS modified wood is superhydrophobic, and its water contact angle is as high as 153°. The POMS modified wood is used to selectively remove the oil from bulk water. More importantly, by the combination of superhydrophobic performance, porous structure, and inherent channels, the modified wood is able to continuously separate oil-water mixture and oil-in-water emulsion, with a high separation efficiency. The superhydrophobic POMS modified wood has a good potential application in wastewater treatment, oil spill cleanup, emulsion separation, and so on.