Facile Fabrication of Highly Hydrophobic Onion-like Candle Soot-Coated Mesh for Durable Oil/Water Separation

Abstract

Although sundry superhydrophobic filtrating materials have been extensively exploited for remediating water pollution arising from frequent oil spills and oily wastewater emission, the expensive reagents, rigorous reaction conditions, and poor durability severely restrict their water purification performance in practical applications. Herein, we present a facile and cost-effective method to fabricate highly hydrophobic onion-like candle soot (CS)-coated mesh for versatile oil/water separation with excellent reusability and durability. Benefiting from a superglue acting as a binder, the sub-micron CS coating composed of interconnected and intrinsic hydrophobic carbon nanoparticles stably anchors on the surface of porous substrates, which enables the mesh to be highly hydrophobic (146.8 ± 0.5°)/superoleophilic and resist the harsh environmental conditions, including acid, alkali, and salt solutions, and even ultrasonic wear. The as-prepared mesh can efficiently separate light or heavy oil/water mixtures with high separation efficiency (>99.95%), among which all the water content in filtrates is below 75 ppm. Besides, such mesh retains excellent separation performance and high hydrophobicity even after 20 cyclic tests, demonstrating its superior reusability and durability. Overall, this work not only makes the CS-coated mesh promising for durable oil/water separation, but also develops an eco-friendly approach to construct robust superhydrophobic surfaces.

Synthesis of Superhydrophobic Cellulose Stearoyl Ester for Oil/Water Separation

“…Among these advanced technologies, materials with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic surfaces can selectively absorb or filter oil from oil/water mixtures, which are usually called "oil-removing" types of materials [5][6][7]. Powdery substances, such as metallic oxide [8], mineral filler [9], and SiO 2 nanoparticles [10], have unique advantages in thin oil spill absorption after hydrophobic modification.…”

Fabrication of Durable Superhydrophobic Surface for Versatile Oil/Water Separation Based on HDTMS Modified PPy/ZnO

“…Various methods have been developed to prepare superhydrophobic surfaces, including sol–gel method [ 3 ], hydrothermal treatment [ 4 ], layer by layer assembly [ 5 ], electrochemical methods [ 6 ], chemical vapor deposition [ 7 ], plasma treatment [ 8 ], chemical etching [ 9 ], and self-assembly method [ 10 ]. The superhydrophobic materials were usually constructed on textile [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], fabrics [ 14 ], meshes [ 15 ], and so on.…”

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 ].…”