Stretchable Textiles with Superwettabilities for Tunable Oil-Water Separation

Oil water separation plays a vital role in a series of industrial applications, such as petroleum industry and sewage treatments. However, traditional separation methods often suffer from non-adjustable separation efficiency and solid impurities blockage. To solve this problem, we modify a commercially available stretchable textile with superwetting materials, including graphene oxide (GO) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), for tunable oil-water separation. After GO coating, the stretchable textile shows superhydrophilicity in air and superoleophobicity underwater, which is further applied to tunable oils-water separation via mechanical stretching. Interestingly, the superwetting textile is workable within a certain stretching degree. By tuning the pore size of the textile via stretching, the permeation rate increased by three times. The stretching property not only promotes the separation rate, but also imparts the self-dredging property that can avoid solid impurities clogging in real case separation. The stretchable oil-water separation textiles hold great potential for practical applications in sewage treatments.