A reliable hydrophobic/superoleophilic fabric filter for oil-water separation: hierarchical bismuth/purified terephthalic acid nanocomposite

In the present work, we developed a simple, eco-friendly, and cost-effective approach to fabricate a recyclable hydrophobic/superoleophilic fabric filter using bismuth nanostructures and purified terephthalic acid (PTA)-based resin. First, different morphologies of bismuth nanostructures such as dendritic, hierarchical, flower and cactus-like were prepared by a facile one-step galvanic displacement method. Afterwards, the coating composition of Bi/PTA mixtures was applied on the surface of fabric filters by a simple hand brushing route. The results indicated that the water and oil contact angles of the modified hydrophobic-superoleophilic fabric filter were about 135 degrees and 0 degrees, respectively. The various oil/water mixtures can be successfully separated by a facile gravity-driven filtration using the as-coated hydrophobic filter with the separation efficiency above 93% and repeatability for at least 10 times. Also, the improved hydrophobic filter showed excellent self-cleaning performance for the removal of surface contaminants. The advantages of scalable production, high efficiency, cost-effective, time saving, sustainable and excellent reusability for the prepared hydrophobic-superoleophilic filter make it to be a potential candidate for oil/water separation and self-cleaning applications.