Superhydrophobic fabrics for oil–water separation through a diamond like carbon (DLC) coating

Abstract

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has already caused, and is continuing to cause, significant global environmental issues and has severely impacted people's lives and natural resources. The ramifications of oil spill accidents highlight the difficulty of achieving effective oil–water separation, and the consequences of these accidents are harsh and long-term. In this work, we describe a convenient approach to fabricate cotton textiles with a hydrophilic coating, showing both superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties. The surfaces are successfully prepared by one-step growth of a diamond-like carbon film onto the textiles via plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition and exhibit highly controllable, energy-efficient oil–water separation with high separation efficiency. The results have important implications for oil-absorption dynamics while repelling water completely. The present work suggests encouraging applications to marine spilt oil cleanup and other water–oil separation systems.