Application of Superhydrophobic Mesh Coated by PDMS/TiO₂ Nanocomposites for Oil/Water Separation

Superhydrophobic materials have recently attracted great interest from both academia and industry due to their promising applications in self-cleaning, oil-water separation, etc. Here, we developed a facile method to prepare hybrid PDMS/TiO₂ fiber for superhydrophobic coatings. TiO₂ could be uniformly distributed into PDMS, forming a hierarchical micro/nano structure on the surface of the substrate. The contact angle of the superhydrophobic coating could reach as high as 155°. The superhydrophobic coating possessed good self-cleaning performance, corrosion resistance, and durability. It was found that gravity-driven oil-water separation was achieved using stainless steel mesh coated with the PDMS/TiO₂ coating. More importantly, the coated filter paper could not only separate oil and pure water but also corrosive solutions, including the salt, acid, and alkali solution.