No abstract

Oil–water separation using porous superhydrophilic materials is a promising method to circumvent the issue of oil-polluted water by separating water from oil–water mixtures.

Preparing underwater superoleophobic surface is an effective method to solve the problems of oil adhesion on the underwater surfaces and oil spill in water. However, the underwater superoleophobic surfaces at present are not reliable in practical application due to their poor stability under corrosion and abrasion. Herein, we proposed a facile method to fabricate a robust superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic surface. The surface is combined with micro honeycomb frame structure and nanostructure, which was fabricated by laser ablation. The surface with the honeycomb pattern shows strong hydrophilicity with a water contact angle of 0° and stable underwater oil repellency with an underwater oil contact angle of 164.9°. Furthermore, it can maintain its excellent underwater superoleophobic performance after 120 cycles of abrasion and corrosion of 6 h at pH = 1–14.