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Stainless Steel Screen Modified with a Self-Healing Hydrogel for Efficient Gravity-Driven Oil–Water Separation

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Abstract

Due to their low oil adhesion and selective oil–water separation, screens with superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity have attracted significant attention. However, oil–water separation materials with high efficiency and low cost are still urgently in demand. Here, inspired by natural marine mussels, we prepared a self-healing hydrogel-coated screen to achieve highly efficient oil–water separation. Polydopamine (PDA) was incorporated into polyacrylamide (PAM) and uniformly coated on a stainless steel screen to prepare a self-healing hydrogel-coated screen. The results showed that the PDA-PAM hydrogel coating firmly adhered to the stainless steel screen and exhibited superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity. Regarding the PDA-PAM hydrogel-modified screen with a coating time of 7 min, different types of oil–water mixtures could be driven by gravity to achieve a highly efficient oil–water separation rate of over 97%, and the water flux could reach 91,673 L m−2 h−1. After ten cycles, the separation efficiency did not decrease significantly, suggesting that the self-healing hydrogel-coated screen has excellent stability and recycling performance. This inexpensive novel filter screen with high efficiency has a wide range of potential application in the field of oil–water separation.

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Acknowledgements

The Natural Science Foundation Project of CQ (cstc2018jcyjAX0711, cstc2021jcyj-msxmX0360, cstc2021jcyj-msxmX0707), Chongqing Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Research Project (yjg202036), Graduate Science and Technology Innovation Project in Chongqing University of Science and Technology (YKJCX2020228, YKJCX2020514).

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  1. Bo Li and Hong Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Composite Materials and Devices, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, 401331, China

    Bo Li, Hong Li, Ke Chen, Chen Liang, Yanping Luo, Wenqian Xiao & Xue Liu

  2. Chongqing Engineering Laboratory of Nano/Micro Biomedical Detection Technology, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, 401331, China

    Bo Li, Hong Li, Ke Chen, Chen Liang, Yanping Luo, Xue Liu & Xiaoling Liao

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  1. Bo Li
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  2. Hong Li
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Correspondence to Wenqian Xiao or Xiaoling Liao.

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Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file1 (PDF 2.41MB)

Supplementary file2 Video S1. Adhesive property of PAM and PDA-PAM hydrogel on stainless steel screen (MP4 19627 kb)

Supplementary file3 Video S2. Water flux of PDA-PAM hydrogel modified stainless steel screen with different coating time (MP4 21766 kb)

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Li, B., Li, H., Chen, K. et al. Stainless Steel Screen Modified with a Self-Healing Hydrogel for Efficient Gravity-Driven Oil–Water Separation. J Polym Environ 30, 2165–2175 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-021-02348-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-021-02348-3

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