Robust superhydrophobic mesh with excellent chemical resistance for separation of complicated boiling water/oil mixtures

Abstract

Nowadays, inferior mechanical stability and poor resistance to chemical corrosion and hot water severely restricted the broad applications of superhydrophobic materials. In this work, a robust superhydrophobic mesh was prepared by using the cured thermoset phenolic resin (TPR) to anchor the hydrophobic SiO2 nanoparticles on stainless-steel mesh surface (SiO2@TPR-SSM). The obtained superhydrophobic SiO2@TPR-SSM exhibits excellent resistance to various mechanical, chemical and high temperature damages. Violent hand kneading or 70 cycles of abrasion by sandpaper could not make the superhydrophobicity of SiO2@TPR-SSM lose. And it would not cause effect on its wettability with immersion in various organic solvents, or strong acid and high-concentration salt solution for 192 h. Even in boiling water or in the environment of 0 °C to 240 °C, the SiO2@TPR-SSM still could retain its superhydrophobicity. Moreover, the obtained superhydrophobic SiO2@TPR-SSM shows high separation capability in separating various water/oil mixtures and the separation cycles are larger than 200. And it also demonstrates high separation capability for boiling strong acid, base and high-concentration salt water/oil mixtures, which makes the SiO2@TPR-SSM into a promising material in industrial separation practice under harsh conditions.