Facile Construction and Fabrication of a Superhydrophobic Copper Mesh for Ultraefficient Oil/Water Separation

Abstract

Facile and fluoride-free fabrication of high-throughput superhydrophobic materials to achieve efficient separation of oil/water mixtures is of great significance. A superhydrophobic copper mesh (SHCM) was synthesized by constructing copper hydroxide nanoneedles on a copper mesh via chemical oxidation followed by further modification with trichloromethylsilane. The band-shaped nanoneedles on the very top were interwoven to form a uniformly distributed array of silicone spots, resulting in a hierarchical surface structure. The synthesized SHCM possessed a static water contact angle (WCA) of up to 159°with good superoleophilic properties. The SHCM was applied for the separation of various oil/water mixtures, and the separation efficiency was up to 99.9% with extremely high oil fluxes of over 220 kL•m −2 h −1 . In addition, the excellent separation efficiencies and high throughputs of SHCM could be maintained with slightly lowered WCAs even after 80 separation cycles and a particle impact abrasion test. Using a self-designed netlike oil skimmer equipped with a SHCM, the floating oil on water could be easily collected. The SHCM synthesized in this study using a facial synthetic strategy has great potential in the application of actual oil/ water separation.

Passive Anti-Icing Performances of the Same Superhydrophobic Surfaces under Static Freezing, Dynamic Supercooled-Droplet Impinging, and Icing Wind Tunnel Tests

“…(e) SEM images of the SS1 structures after icing wind tunnel tests. (f) Summarization of the relationships between the size of the droplets/particles and the impacting velocity from four types of impacting experiments: water-jet impacting, solid-particle impacting, supercooled-droplet impinging, and icing wind tunnel tests. − (g) Calculated dynamic pressure P D when the droplets/particles contact the target surfaces. (h) Conceptual description diagram of pressure P versus time t according to the four impacting experiments.…”

“…Both supercooled-droplet impinging and icing wind tunnel test results demonstrate that droplet impacting is a significant factor that determines the ice-adhesion and structural damage on the substrate. To clarify how the droplet or solid-particle impacting influences and interacts with the target surfaces, we summarized the relationships between the size of the droplets/particles and the impacting velocity and illustrated the main parametric ranges from four typical experiments: water-jet impacting, solid-particle impacting, supercooled-droplet impinging, and icing wind tunnel tests (Figure f). − Water-jet impacting tests own a wide parametric range, with impacting velocities from several meters per second to tens of meters per second and droplet sizes of ∼500 to ∼3500 μm. Solid-particle impacting and supercooled-droplet impinging tests have the similar impacting velocities of several meters per second; the latter always adopts larger sizes of ∼2500 to ∼3000 μm, while the former mostly use particle sizes of less than 500 μm.…”

Facile Construction and Fabrication of a Superhydrophobic and Super Oleophilic Stainless Steel Mesh for Separation of Water and Oil

“…Over the past few years, oil/water separation materials, based on metal meshes [ 20 , 21 , 22 ], especially stainless steel meshes (SSM) [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], have drawn much attention, with significant advantages in terms of their high mechanical strength, easy availability, and long durability. The preparation of superhydrophobic mesh is mainly based on surface modification by changing the chemical composition or the microscopic geometry of the surface [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Solar-Driven Unmanned Hazardous and Noxious Substance Trapping Devices Equipped with Reverse Piloti Structures and Cooling Systems

“…There are two types of typical approaches for oil/water separation: filtration and absorption. The filtration method is suitable for industrial oil/water separation settings because it allows a higher flux than the absorption method [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Since absorbents can be simply placed on oil spill sites and oil can be easily removed in situ by absorbents, the absorption method is more practical than the filtration method in cases of oil spill accidents [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”