Fabrication of superhydrophobic nano-aluminum films on stainless steel meshes by electrophoretic deposition for oil-water separation

Stainless steel meshes with superhydrophobic surfaces were successfully fabricated via a facile electrophoretic deposition process. The surface morphology and chemical compositions were characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and fourier-transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR). After stearic acid modification, the obtained nano-aluminum films on stainless steel meshes showed an excellent superhydrophobic properties with a water contact angle of 160 degrees +/- 1.2 degrees and a water sliding angle of less than 5 degrees. In addition, on the basis of the superhydrophobic meshes, a simple, continuous oil-water separation apparatus was designed, and the oil-water separation efficiency was up to 95.8% +/- 0.9%. Meanwhile, after 20 oil-water separation cycles, the separation efficiency without significant reduction suggested the stable performance of superhydrophobic stainless steel meshes on the oil-water separation. Moreover, the flow rate of oil-water mixture and effective separation length were investigated to determine their effects on the oil-water separation efficiency, respectively. Our work provides a cost-efficient method to prepare stable superhydrophobic nano-Al films on stainless steel meshes, and it has promising practical applications on oil-water separation. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.