Super-amphiphobic arabic gum-based coatings on textile for on-demand oily and dye wastewater treatment

Different membrane materials have broadly been constructed for oil-containing water separation, but most of preparation routes involve corrosive or toxic chemicals and especially many materials have only single superwetting property. Herein, a novel and eco-friendly cellulose-based textile membrane is developed by incorporating the composite coating consisting of arabic gum (AG), attapulgite (APT), and iron (Fe) onto cellulose textiles. The functionalized textile is superoleophobic underwater and superhydrophobic underoil. As a result, the textile prewetted with water or oil can be employed to separate light oil layer/water and heavy oil layer/water mixtures, respectively, and the separation efficiency to the two types of mixtures is larger than 98.3 %. Results also reveal that the decorated textile possesses superior stability and recyclability in purifying oily wastewater. More importantly, such coated textile is capable of filtrating water-soluble contaminants (dyes) from polluted water. Due to the versatility and environmental compatibility of product as well as the accessibility as agricultural and forestry product as raw materials, the advanced textiles may offer effective solutions to oily wastewater purification and water-soluble contaminant removal.