Stable superhydrophobic and superoleophilic soft porous materials for oil/water separation

Abstract

In this paper, polyaniline nanofibers were deposited on the surface of fabrics and generated a rough structure similar to the micromorphology of a lotus leaf via the oxidative chemical polymerization of aniline. After modification with n-octadecyl thiol, water-repellent fabrics were obtained. Interestingly, the as-prepared fabrics showed stable and robust superhydrophobic properties towards many corrosive solutions (acidic, basic, salt liquids), hot water, and mechanical abrasion. In addition, it was proven that this method can also be applied to other porous materials with different pore diameters and chemical compositions, such as stainless steel meshes with different pore diameters and sponges. More importantly, the as-obtained diverse superhydrophobic/superoleophilic porous materials can successfully and effectively be applied to separate oil-and-water mixtures. It is expected that this general route to fabricating superhydrophobic porous materials could have many more practical applications, especially in oil/water separation.