An accessible superhydrophobic coating with nanostructure for continuously oil/water separation

Abstract

It is an urgent need to develop low-cost, scalable-fabricating materials, technologies and equipments that are capable to separate oil-water mixtures efficiently. Traditional separation technologies are discontinuous and expensive. Large-scale separation devices are difficult to be prepared. Here we report stainless steel wire mesh coated with Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic coating, which can be easily prepared by solution method. Our mesh can selectively and effectively (>95%) separate oil from oil/water mixtures, such as gasoline, diesel, vegetable oil and kerosene/water mixtures without any extrapower. The separation equipment can be designed to achieve separate and continuous collection of oil and water. We anticipate that our separation method will have numerous applications, including emergency treatment of spill accidents of oil and derivative products, wastewater treatment and fuel purification.