A versatile approach to produce superhydrophobic materials used for oil-water separation

Designing functional materials that can be used for oil-water separation in an efficient and cost-effective process is highly desired yet still challenging. Herein, three functional materials used for oil-water separation are readily produced by a dip coating process. Three typical porous materials including copper mesh, fabric, and sponge were dipped into the solution of polyfluorowax-hydrophobic SiO2 to alter their surface texture and chemistry, allowing them to exhibit superhydrophobic property. It was found that the resulting superhydrophobic copper mesh and fabric can be used as a membrane to separate oil-water mixture efficiency; while the obtained superhydrophobic sponge was demonstrated as an oil sorbent scaffold to absorb oil from the oil-water mixture selectively. More importantly, these superhydrophobic materials can retain their oil-water separation efficiency even after 10 cycles of oil-water separation.