The surfaces of commercially available polyester (PET) and polypropylene (PP) are superhydrophobically modified via the deposition of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)‐coated SiO2 nanoparticles (P‐SiO2) and PDMS binder. The adhesion of P‐SiO2 is stronger on PET than on PP due to a stronger chemical interaction between PET and PDMS, which is attributed to the higher surface energy of PET than PP. The waterproof ability and oil separation rate of the P‐SiO2‐coated PET (dip‐PET) membranes are studied as a function of membrane thickness, and the influence of oil viscosity on the oil separation efficiency is investigated. Optimal membrane thickness should be selected in a given environment for the facile oil–water separation and the dip‐PET membrane is chemically stable and can be used repetitively for oil–water separation. Finally, an automated prototype instrument is introduced for the dip‐coating process. It is suggested that our dip‐PET is a promising solution for oil–water separation in real‐world oil‐spill applications.

Marine pollution is a critical environmental issue that involves high recovery costs when there are oil spills into the sea. As a response, the Korean Coast Guard has added oil snares as a new category of oil adsorbents. In this study, we introduce a hydrophobic polypropylene-based novel semicircle oil snare with a water repellent coating and studied the applicability of the developed oil snare using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Moreover, the effects of pH and UV were investigated by changing the contact angle of the prepared materials. The water repellent coating was evenly distributed on the surface of the oil snare with a smaller decrease in contact angle under basic conditions compared to that of the non-water repellent treated oil snare. Lastly, our semicircle oil snare showed nearly 2 times more oil adsorption compared to that of the non-water repellent treated oil snare.