Superhydrophobic nylon cloth coated with modified silica used for oil–water separation

Abstract

The handling of oil spill accidents is a global challenge to prevent further deterioration of our environment. Oil–water separation membrane has become a great choice to settle the emergency accidents. Due to the strong organization, resistance to wear and tear as well as easy to clean, nylon cloth is firstly chosen as a substrate in our study. Silica was used as the coating material, which was modified by methyltrichlorosilane. The modification made silica particles hydrophobic. After the coating of modified silica particles, the surface of the nylon cloth became much rougher than before. The rough surface improved the hydrophobicity of nylon cloth. The water contact angle (WCA) reached 150.3°. On the other hand, oil could be separated from oil–water mixture rapidly through this membrane without any extra force. On the whole, the above properties make the nylon cloth coated with modified silica particles a more suitable material for oil–water separation in oil spill accidents. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38:e13051, 2019