Pressure Response through Valve for Continuous Oil‐Water Separation Based on a Flexible Superhydrophobic/Superoleophilic Thermoplastic Vulcanizate Film

Abstract

AbstractHighly efficient oil‐water separation shows urgent demand in industrial applications, especially in oil‐spill accidents and organic solvent separation. Herein, a novel method is proposed for continuous oil‐water separation by a pressure response through valve, which is loaded in a flexible convolute superhydrophobic/superoleophilic film based on low‐density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene‐propylene‐diene terpolymer (EPDM) thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV). The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic LDPE/EPDM TPV film (with contact angles of oil and water are 0° and 161.9°± 2.2°) is prepared only via a molding process where sandpaper is used as the template. The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic property of the TPV film shows robust performance in the activity endurance test. More importantly, the flexible LDPE/EPDM TPV film can be easily rolled up and loaded in through valve, which is the pressure response channel in oil‐water separation. The typical separation pressure of oil and water is 3.01 and 6.17 kPa, which means the oil can be completely separated from the oil‐water mixture under proper pressure in the pressure response through valve.