Facile fabrication of underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh for highly efficient oil/water separation

The removal of oil and organic pollutants from water is highly desired because of the frequent oil spill accidents and increase of industrial oily wastewater. Here, underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh was fabricated through spraying TiO2 nanoparticles and polyurethane mixtures onto stainless steel mesh. The underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh was then used to separate water from oil/water mixtures, where only the water permeates through the mesh while the oil is repelled on the mesh. In addition, the separation efficiency of the coated mesh is as high as 99.0%. Furthermore, the TiO2 coated mesh still maintained high separation efficiency over 97.5% and stable recyclability after 40 separation cycles. Thus, such superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh is a very potential material for the application of oil spill cleanup and industrial oily wastewater remediation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.