A magnetically superhydrophobic bulk material for oil removal

Traditionally oil-removal technologies are energy-intensive and suffer from limited reusability. Herein, to address this challenge, we fabricated a magnetically superhydrophobic bulk material with good reusability for oil-removal by a facile approach. The magnetically bulk material can selectively absorb the oil spreading on water surface, due to its superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity, and can be easily collected from water under magnetic field. The oil absorbed in the magnetic bulk material could be removed just by burning in air, which allowed the magnetic bulk material to be used for oil-removal once more. Interestingly, small powers cut from the magnetic bulk material can also be used to remove oil from water in this way. Importantly, the oil absorption capability of the magnetic bulk material differs slightly even after 10 oil-removal cycles. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.