Intelligent composite foam with reversible tunable superwettability for efficient and sustainable oil/water separation and high-concentration organic wastewater purification

Abstract

Design and development of robust and advanced separation materials with superwettability for efficient oil/water separation are of great interest and significance because of the increasing serious oil pollution problems. Herein, we have fabricated a copper foam-based superwettable membrane material with intelligent switchable wettability, favorable durability and corrosion resistance via a facile and scalable method. Benefitting from the synergetic effect of the well-defined hierarchical 3D porous surface structure and appropriate chemistry containing pH responsive groups, the resulting superwettable material can exhibit two distinct durable surface wettabilities via pH-triggered change of dominant functional groups on its surface. By virtue of the reversible tunable superwettability, the as-prepared material is successfully exploited for intelligent and sustainable separation of multiple oil/water mixtures, especially the complex crude oil/water mixture and high concentration organic wastewater, showing superior separation performance, favorable oil/organic solvents recoverability and durability. It is well known that the application of superwettable membranes in treating complex chemical systems has been seldom reported in current works. Therefore, it is believed that the intelligent superwettable material can be widely scaled up to various oily wastewater treatment and oil spills cleanup, which will be of great significance for practical potential applications and sustainable development of ecological environment.