A robust superhydrophobic TiO₂ NPs coated cellulose sponge for highly efficient oil-water separation.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Zhang, Hui Li, Yuqi Lu, Zexiang Chen, Lihui Huang, Liulian Fan, Mizi
Abstract	Oil-water separation has recently become a worldwide concern because of the increasing oil spill accidents and industrial oily wastewater generation. Herein, a facile method with the combined superhydrophobic coating and adhesive was used to fabricate superhydrophobic TiO2 NPs coated cellulose sponge. The developed materials exhibited excellent superhydrophobicity (WCA = 171°) and superoleophilicity (OCA = 0°), which can separate a variety of oil-water mixtures, including chloroform, toluene, kerosene and other contaminations. A high separation efficiency up to 98.5% for chloroform-water mixture was achieved when used for gravity-driven oil/water separation test. More importantly, the as-prepared samples exhibited excellent chemical stability and mechanical abrasion resistance even towards various corrosive oil/water mixtures (such as strong acid, alkali solution and salt-water environment) or a strong abrasion by aluminium oxide sandpaper of 600 mesh. In addition, the separation efficiency remained above 93% even after 40 scratch cycles, and the materials could be reused with a stable hydrophobicity, indicating a strong potential for industrial application.
Journal	Scientific Reports [Sci Rep]
Volume Number	7
DOI	10.1038/s41598-017-09912-9
PubMed Central reference number	PMC5572709
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	28842635
e-ISSN	20452322
Language	English
Publisher	Nature Publishing Group
Publisher Date	2017-08-25
Publisher Place	London
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Multidisciplinary