Cauliflower-like Nickel with Polar Ni(OH)2/NiOxFy Shell To Decorate Copper Meshes for Efficient Oil/Water Separation

摘要

In recent years, superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic membranes have shown promising results in advanced oil/water separation. However, these membranes still have some drawbacks, like tedious preparation process and instability, which hinder their application in oil/water separation. Accordingly, the development of a facile approach to prepare superhydrophilic membranes with excellent oil/water separation performance is still coveted. Here, a copper mesh decorated with cauliflower-like nickel (Cu [email?protected]) is synthesized via a facile one-step electrodeposition method. Due to the surface polar ?OH and ?O–Ni–F groups of the Ni(OH)2/NiOxFy shell of the cauliflower-like nickel (CF-Ni), this Cu [email?protected] displays superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic wettability. The results show that the Cu [email?protected] has excellent oil/water separation efficiency (higher than 99.2%) and ultrahigh water flux (around 20 L h–1 cm–2). Moreover, it also displays good stability in a 10 wt % NaCl solution and 1 M NaOH solution for oil/water separation. By introducing the CF-Ni with polar Ni(OH)2/NiOxFy components onto the surface of the materials via a simple electrodeposition method, the materials will acquire the capability to not only achieve oil/water separation but also realize many other applications, like self-cleaning, underwater bubble manipulation, and fog harvesting.