Robust and durable superhydrophobic fabrics fabricated via simple Cu nanoparticles deposition route and its application in oil/water separation

The exploitation of separation materials with high selectivity for oil pollutants is of great importance due to severe environmental damage from oil spillages and industrial discharge of oils. A facile in situ growth process for creating superhydrophobic-superoleophilic fabrics for oil-water separation is developed. This proposed method is based mainly on the deposition Cu nanoparticles and subsequent hydrophobic modification. Compared with the hydrophilicity of original fabric, the water contact angle of the modified fabric rises to 154.5, suggesting its superhydrophobicity. The as-prepared fabrics also exhibit wonderful oil-water selectivity, excellent recyclability, and high separation efficiency (>94.5%). Especially, via pumping the fabric rolled into a multilayered tube, various types of oils on water surface can be continuously separated in situ without any water uptake. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic fabrics show excellent superhydrophobic stability, and can resist different chemicals, such as salty, acidic, and alkaline solutions, oils, and hot water. After the abrasion of 400 cycles, the broken fabric still possesses highly hydrophobicity with water contact angle of 145 degrees. Therefore, due to simple fabrication steps, low cost, and scalable process, the as-prepared fabrics can be applied in the separation of oils and other organic solvents from water. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.