Fabrication of sustainable hydrophobic and oleophilic pseudo-ordered macroporous Fe–Cu films with tunable composition and pore size via electrodeposition through colloidal templates

Abstract

In this work, sustainable hydrophobic and oleophilic macroporous Fe-Cu films are fabricated using a straightforward, inexpensive and environmentally friendly twostep procedure which combines electrodeposition with the colloidal lithography technique. Elemental, morphological and structuralcharacterization of the resulting pseudo-ordered meshes is carried out and wettability is assessed using contact angle measurements with respect to two distinct film compositions (3 at.% Fe vs 75-85 at.% Fe) and three different pore diameters (namely, 200 nm, 350 nm and 500 nm). Water contact angles are measured to be in the range of approximately 109.0-155.1•(without any post-surface functionalization) and alow contact angle hysteresis is observed in the superhydrophobic samples. The increase in the hydrophobic character of the films correlates well with an increase in surface roughness, whereas differences incomposition play a minor role. For the superhydrophobic Fe-rich macroporous film, water-oil separation capability and recyclability are also demonstrated while the pore size is favorable for effective water-oil mixture and emulsion separation. The results shown here demonstrate that sustainable and affordable materials processed in a simple and cheap manner can be an asset for the removal of water-immiscibleorganic compounds from aqueous environments.

Functional macroporous iron-phosphorous films by electrodeposition on colloidal crystal templates

“…Fluctuation of the contact angle values within the same series of samples (dense vs. macroporous) can be understood on the basis of their dissimilar chemical composition (P, O contents) and slightly different morphology (see for example Figure 4). In any case, the effect of porosity dominates over the chemical composition, in agreement with other works on macroporous metallic films [55].…”

Tailoring Materials with Specific Wettability in Biomedical Engineering

“…Various micro-or nanopatterns have been developed such as conical, pillar-structured, honeycomb-like, and textured. [70][71][72][73][74][75][76] In general, the template method involves three procedures: the preparation of templates www.advancedsciencenews.com www.advancedscience.com Microfluidics, self-assembly ETPTA, SiO 2 , PNIPAM Porous structure Programmable wettability [10] Chemical polymerization Graphene, TPI, perfluorinated oil…”

“…[ 59 , 60 ] With the development of science and technology, many advanced methods have been put forward to prepare materials especially biomaterials with specific wettability such as superwetting materials and SLIPS. [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 ,…”

“…Various micro‐ or nano‐patterns have been developed such as conical, pillar‐structured, honeycomb‐like, and textured. [ 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 ] In general, the template method involves three procedures: the preparation of templates with featured morphology, the molding process, and the removal of templates. As a consequence, the replication samples would finally present the same structure with the templates.…”

The European Training Network SELECTA reaches its end

“…The fellows also attended a large number of national and international workshops/conferences (more than 60) in order to disseminate the work carried out in the frame of SELECTA. The great skills of the ESRs have been recognized in a number of prizes and awards like in the "Art in Magnetism" contest (INTERMAG 2018, Singapore, April 2018) won by Matteo Cialone (ESR from Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Italy) [3], or the "Best Student Presentation" awarded to Aliona Nicolenco (ESR from Vilnius University, Lithuania) during the 3 rd COST Action e-MINDS (MP1407) Training School held in in Siófok, Hungary, on March 2018 [4]. Two of the ESRs also attended the 'Meet the Fellows' event held Madrid in April 2016 and were elected as "MSCA fellows of the week".…”