Recently, oil/water separation has attracted intensive attention due to the frequent crude oil spill accidents and the increasing amount of industrial wastewater. Thousands of outstanding achievements have been reported on the basis of membranes with superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity. However, a universal approach combining cheaper reagents with easier operations to fabricate superhydrophilic materials for effective oil/water separation is still a challenge and greatly encouraged. In the present work, we fabricate the superhydrophilic copper mesh decorated with nickel nanoparticles (Ni-NPs) via electrodeposition in fluorine-containing electrolyte. The size of Ni-NPs that consists of a metal Ni core and a polar NiO/Ni(OH) 2 shell is about 300 nm; what's more, the Ni-NPs combine with each other to form treelike nickel crystals by varying the experimental parameters. This optimized mesh exhibits remarkable oil/water separation performance. The oil content in separated water is lower than 3 ppm, and the stability in acidic, alkaline, and salt solutions and the properties for repeated use are also excellent. Further, we provide a novel approach to synthesis superhydrophilic nanoparticles with a core−shell structure for coating or other applications such as catalysis, self-cleaning, antifogging, and so on.

Recently, oil/water separation has attracted intensive attention because of frequent crude oil spill accidents and the increasing amount of industrial wastewater. Ti-based materials are nontoxic and environment-friendly for oil/water separation; however, there is little attention focused on this field. In the present work, we introduce, for the first time, surface −O−Ti−F groups onto Ti foam by a simple anodization in a fluorinecontaining electrolyte to form a superhydrophilic membrane for oil-in-water emulsion separation, which was proven to be excellent with the assistance of surface nanocavities. The water permeability of anodized Ti foam is elevated by about 10 times as compared to that of the original one, and the oil/water separation efficiency is above 99% with good anticorrosive properties. In addition, this fluorine-induced superhydrophilicity can be applied to metals and semimetals for many other applications such as self-cleaning, surface modification of catalysts, removal of heavy metal ions, etc.

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