Fabrication and application of superhydrophobic-superoleophilic porous Cu sponge

摘要

Superhydrophobic-superoleophilic materials arises more and more attention because of their possible application on oil/water separation. Here, chemical oxidation and palmitic acid modification were used to fabricate superhydrophobic-superoleophilic surface on porous Cu sponge. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) and Intelligent Roman Spectroscopy (DXR) were used to detect the surface micromorphology, chemical composition and wettability of the Cu sponge. The results show that the nanometer-scale structures with the composition of CuO and Cu_2O were covered on the whole 3D skeleton of Cu sponge after chemical oxidation and the resulted surfaces show superhydrophilicity and superoleophilicity. After palmitic acid modification, the surface wettability was transferred into superhydrophobicity with contact angle of 156° and tilting angle of smaller than 10°, but still showing superoleophilicity. Based on the fabricated superhydrophobic-superoleophilic porous Cu sponge, pouring-type, gravity driven oil/water separation and surface-tension-driven, gravity assisted oil/water separation was realized with a high separation efficiency.