Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages 760-769Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b07182
Keywords
superwetting; stainless steel mesh; water collection; water-in-oil emulsion separation; de-emulsification; surface energy gradient
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21176091, 21376093, 21676102]
- Natural Science Foundation of Guang-dong Province [S2011030001366]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2013ZZ074]
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Inspired by the water-collecting mechanism of the Stenocara beetle's back structure, we prepared a super hydrophilic bumps superhydrophobic/superoleophilic stainless steel mesh (SBS-SSM) filter via a facile and environmentally friendly method. Specifically, hydrophilic silica microparticles are assembled on the as-cleaned stainless steel mesh surface, followed by further spin-coating with a fluoropolymer/SiO2 nanoparticle solution. On the special surface of SBS-SSM, attributed to the steep surface energy gradient, the superhydrophilic bumps (hydrophilic silica micropartides) are able to capture emulsified water droplets and collect water from the emulsion even when their size is smaller than the pore size of the stainless steel mesh. The oil portion of the water-in-oil emulsion therefore permeates through pores of the superhydrophobic/superoleophilic mesh coating freely and gets purified. We demonstrated an oil recovery purity up to 99.95 wt % for surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions on the biomimetic SBS-SSM filter, which is superior to that of the traditional superhydrophobic/superoleophilic stainless steel mesh (S-SSM) filter lacking the superhydrophilic bump structure. Together with a facile and environmentally friendly coating strategy, this tool shows great application potential for water-in-oil emulsion separation and oil purification.
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