Design and preparation of efficient, stable and superhydrophobic copper foam membrane for selective oil absorption and consecutive oil- water separation

摘要

It is extremely important and challenging to develop an effective device for the continuous separation and recovery of large-scale oil-water mixtures due to their contribution to ecological remediation and contamination control. In this work, a superhydrophobic copper foam with high oil-water separation efficiency was successfully fabricated, which could serve both as oil absorption material and oil-water separation membrane, by in situ self-sacrificial template method combining the subsequent steaming modification. The obtained characterization results present that copper foam possesses large pore structure, micro-anoscale two-tier surface roughness, high water contact angle (153.6 degrees), and low sliding angle (4.5 degrees). Experimental results show that as-prepared copper foam could not only rapidly absorb residual oil either on the water surface or underwater, but also separate a series of oils from water, like carbon tetrachloride, trichloromethane, methylbenzene, pump oil and diesel. Furthermore, the separation efficiencies of copper foam on trichloromethane-water and diesel-water mixture were maintained above 96.9% and 90.8% after 10 cycles, respectively. Additionally, as-prepared copper foam exhibits excellent corrosion resistant ability and superior hydrophobic stability. The facile, low-cost and controllable strategy presented herein has a bright future in oil-water separation, and also can be further expanded to prepare various anti-corrosion, self-cleaning and water-proof sport materials. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.