Abstract
A facile, solvent-minimized approach to functionalize commercial raw fabrics is described. Reactive vapor deposition of conjugated polymers followed by post-deposition functionalization transforms common, off-the-shelf textiles into distinctly hydrophobic or superhydrophilic materials. The fabric coatings created by reactive vapor deposition are especially resistant to mechanical and solvent washing, as compared to coatings applied by conventional, solution-phase silane chemistries. Janus fabrics with dissimilar wettability on each face are also easily created using a simple, three-step vapor coating process, which cannot be replicated using conventional solution phase functionalization strategies. Hydrophobic fabrics created using reactive vapor deposition and post-deposition functionalization are effective, reusable, large-volume oil–water separators, either under gravity filtration or as immersible absorbants.
Highlights
Industrial water contamination is a pernicious worldwide problem that wreaks tremendous, long-lasting environmental damage and cripples developing economies
The surface coatings created by reactive fabric was fully immersed in the mixture
Janus fabrics with dissimilar wettability be further re-used to purify another oil/water emulsion after wringing it out and air drying; on each face can be created using a simple, three-step vapor coating process, which cannot be replicated by solution-phase methods
Summary
Industrial water contamination is a pernicious worldwide problem that wreaks tremendous, long-lasting environmental damage and cripples developing economies. Numerous research efforts are dedicated to developing materials for cleaning up oil-contaminated water [1] Conventional separation materials such as dispersants, solidifiers, and booms and skimmers suffer from high manufacturing costs, secondary pollution, frequent fouling and low separation efficiency [2,3]. Due to these limitations, membranes with special wettability (superhydrophobicity and oleophilicity) have received intense recent attention. Membranes with special wettability (superhydrophobicity and oleophilicity) have received intense recent attention Nanostructured hydrophobic materials, such as polymer membranes and metal meshes, have been reported for oil–water separation, but complex and non-scalable fabrication process are typically encountered, in addition to the frequent need for high-cost, fine chemicals during synthesis [4,5,6,7,8]. Methods of functionalizing commonly-available fabrics for water decontamination include surface modification with inorganic nanoparticles [10,11,12], silane treatment [13], graft polymerization [14,15] and polymer lamination [16]
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