Robust superhydrophobic carbon fiber sponge used for efficient oil/corrosive solution mixtures separation

Great challenges are still remained for the oil/water separation in highly acidic, alkaline, and salty environment. Low-cost, eco-friendly and being useful in harsh corrosive environment materials with special wettability are urgently desired to deal with severe environmental and ecological problems arisen from oil spills and organic leakages. Herein, we present a superhydrophobic carbon fiber (CF) sponge with excellent anti-corrosion property and without any chemical modification process was obtained, which can used for efficient oil/corrosive solution mixtures separation. Furthermore, The CF sponge not only can directly and rapidly adsorb oils from water surface, but also can being a super hydrophobic membrane to realize on-demand oil/water separation in highly acidic, alkaline, salty environment by gravity. By virtue of facile and cost-efficient and excellent adsorption/filtration performance in oils/corrosive solutions separation, the unique CF sponge holds great promise of oil spills cleanup and oil/water separation in real harsh environments. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.