Facile Construction and Fabrication of a Superhydrophobic Copper Mesh for Ultraefficient Oil/Water Separation
Bimin Zhou, Bashir Hashim Bashir, Yong Liu, Baoquan Zhang
Abstract
Facile and fluoride-free fabrication of high-throughput superhydrophobic materials to achieve efficient separation of oil/water mixtures is of great significance. A superhydrophobic copper mesh (SHCM) was synthesized by constructing copper hydroxide nanoneedles on a copper mesh via chemical oxidation followed by further modification with trichloromethylsilane. The band-shaped nanoneedles on the very top were interwoven to form a uniformly distributed array of silicone spots, resulting in a hierarchical surface structure. The synthesized SHCM possessed a static water contact angle (WCA) of up to 159° with good superoleophilic properties. The SHCM was applied for the separation of various oil/water mixtures, and the separation efficiency was up to 99.9% with extremely high oil fluxes of over 220 kL·m–2 h–1. In addition, the excellent separation efficiencies and high throughputs of SHCM could be maintained with slightly lowered WCAs even after 80 separation cycles and a particle impact abrasion test. Using a self-designed netlike oil skimmer equipped with a SHCM, the floating oil on water could be easily collected. The SHCM synthesized in this study using a facial synthetic strategy has great potential in the application of actual oil/water separation.