A three-dimensional porous metal foam with selective-wettability for oil–water separation

Abstract

The development of selective-wettability surfaces of porous materials is important for oil spill cleanup. A new type of oil-water separation material has been prepared through a three-dimensional (3-D) extension of a biologically inspired two-dimensional (2-D) material. In this, a simple solution-immersion method is used to construct a super-oleophilic and super-hydrophobic surface on the metallic skeleton of a copper foam, onto which a nanosheet structure is formed that differs greatly from previous nanoscale needle-based materials. This 3-D copper foam is demonstrated to be capable of supporting a maximum height of accumulated water of 5.5 cm prior to oil wetting and 1.5 cm after oil wetting. Furthermore, the foam is capable of efficient oil-water separation, despite losing its super-hydrophobicity during the process. This has given important new insight into the mechanism of separation, in that super-oleophilicity is clearly important to achieving good separation. The selective-wettability of this porous metal foam is expected to extend the range of metal-based oil-water separation materials from 2D metal meshes to more complex 3-D metal structures.

Tuning the Wetting Properties of SiO2-Based Nanofluids to Create Durable Surfaces with Special Wettability for Self-Cleaning, Anti-Fouling, and Oil–Water Separation

“…As clearly shown in Figure b, an oil droplet suspends spherically when placed on the coated mesh, whereas a water droplet simply penetrates the mesh spontaneously. We used a setup based on a well-established protocol that other researchers also utilized (Figure c). ,− The oil–water mixtures were poured onto the treated mesh, which was clamped by two glass beakers. During separation, water permeated the mesh and was accumulated, whereas oil was excluded from the mesh.…”

Laser-Heat Surface Treatment of Superwetting Copper Foam for Efficient Oil–Water Separation

“…Zou et al [ 20 ] prepared composite ceramic membranes by employing fly ash particles recycled from electric plant and kaolin materials and utilized the ceramic membranes for the efficient separation of oil–water emulsions. Zhang et al [ 21 ] constructed a superoleophilic/superhydrophobic surface on copper (Cu) foam using a solution-immersion method, and the foam showed a strong capability for oil–water separation. Although these methods have shown notable effectiveness for oil–water separation, the process complexity and lack of environmental friendliness are nonnegligible constraints that limit their wider applications.…”

Production and Tensile Behavior of Novel Powder Wire Mesh Composite Porous Plates

“…Porous metal materials have the advantages of controllable pore size and porosity, high temperature resistance, renewability, and good processing performance [1] and are widely used in filtration, [2] separation, [3][4][5][6] noise reduction, [7,8] catalysis, [9] heat transfer, [10][11][12] biomedicine, [13] and other fields. With the gradual transformation of metallic porous materials from functional materials to integrated materials with functional structures, [14][15][16] stricter requirements are put forward for their mechanical properties.…”