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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Metal Surfaces for Anti-Icing Applications
Published on: August 15, 2018
Facile Fabrication of Magnetic, Durable and Superhydrophobic Cotton for Efficient Oil/Water Separation
Mingguang Yu1, Qing Wang2, Wenxin Yang3
1School of Materials Science and Energy Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan 528000, China. mesyumg@fosu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
In this paper, we present a facile and efficient strategy for the fabrication of magnetic, durable, and superhydrophobic cotton for oil/water separation. The superhydrophobic cotton functionalized with Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles was prepared via the in situ coprecipitation of Fe2+/Fe3+ ions under ammonia solution on cotton fabrics using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a coupling agent and hydrophobic treatment with tridecafluorooctyl triethoxysilane (FAS) in sequence. The as-prepared cotton demonstrated excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 155.6° ± 1.2° and good magnetic responsiveness. Under the control of the external magnetic field, the cotton fabrics could be easily controlled to absorb the oil from water as oil absorbents, showing high oil/water separation efficiency, even in hot water. Moreover, the cotton demonstrated remarkable mechanical durable properties, being strongly friction-resistant against sandpaper and finger wipe, while maintaining its water repellency. This study developed a novel and efficient strategy for the construction of magnetic, durable, and superhydrophobic biomass-based adsorbent for oil/water separation, which can be easily scaled up for practical oil absorption.
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