An easily-prepared superhydrophobic paper promoted by dodecanethiol and its oil–water separation mechanism

With the serious water contamination by frequent oil spill accidents and industrial wastewater emissions, superhydrophobic materials for oil–water separation have attracted considerable attention. In this study, an easily-prepared superhydrophobic paper was provided by using the dip-coating method, which involved depositing dopamine, copper sulfate, and dodecanethiol layer by layer on the surface of the paper to form a dense superhydrophobic surface. The prepared modified paper surface possessed excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle (WCA) of 162° and an oil–water separation efficiency of more than 99% could be reached. Even after 40 cycles of oil–water separation, the separation efficiency and the water contact angle were still kept more than 95% and 150°, respectively. Additionally, the prepared superhydrophobic paper exhibited good self-cleaning properties and was highly resistant to acid, alkali, salt, and organic solutions. As a result, this study provided a new simple method to prepare functional superhydrophobic materials for oil–water separation.

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