Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A robust 3D superhydrophobic sponge for in situ continuous oil removing

  • Chemical routes to materials
  • Published:
Journal of Materials Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A variety of materials with superwetting property are fabricated for separation of immiscible oils/organic solvents and water mixture. However, the complex fabrication process, requirement of sophisticated equipment, and associated toxicity strongly limit the development of the superwetting materials. In this paper, a simple two-step dip coating strategy is demonstrated to prepare polydopamine-octadecanethiol modified 3D porous sponge with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties (a water contact angle of 156.8° ± 2.5° and an oil contact angle of nearly 0°) through the combination of enhanced surface roughness and low surface energy coating for separation of oil/water mixture. The as-prepared superhydrophobic sponges possess high porosity (greater than 99.2%), low density (below 10 mg/cm3), and 3D porous network structure, which meet well with the needs for adsorption of the actual oil pollutions. More importantly, in situ continuous removal of oil from oil/water mixture is successfully accomplished via a vacuum-assisted system, even in the corrosive environments including turbulent situation, heat, acidic, alkaline, seawater, and glacial water. The continuous oil collection system could avoid the limit in adsorption saturation effectively. We believe that the superhydrophobic sponge with easy large-scale production, economical, and environmentally friendly characteristics can be a superior candidate for the treatment of oily wastewater and practical oil spill accidents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kujawinski EB, Soule MCK, Valentine DL, Boysen AK, Longnecker K, Redmond MC (2011) Fate of dispersants associated with the deepwater horizon oil spill. Environ Sci Technol 45:1298–1306

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Li HL, Boufadel MC (2010) Long-term persistence of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill in two-layer beaches. Nat Geosci 3:96–99

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Schrope M (2011) Oil spill deep wounds. Nature 472:152–154

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shannon MA, Bohn PW, Elimelech M, Georgiadis JG, Marinas BJ, Mayes AM (2008) Science and technology for water purification in the coming decades. Nature 452:301–310

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Elliott JE, Elliott KH (2013) Environmental science. Tracking marine pollution. Science 340:556–558

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bennett B, Jiang C, Snowdon LR, Larter SR (2014) A practical method for the separation of high quality heavy oil and bitumen samples from oil reservoir cores for physical and chemical property determination. Fuel 116:208–213

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Broje V, Keller AA (2006) Improved mechanical oil spill recovery using an optimized geometry for the skimmer surface. Environ Sci Technol 40:7914–7918

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Diya’uddeen BH, Daud WMAW, Aziz ARA (2011) Treatment technologies for petroleum refinery effluents: a review. Process Saf Environ 89:95–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Yao X, Song YL, Jiang L (2011) Applications of bio-inspired special wettable surfaces. Adv Mater 23:719–734

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zeng X, Qian L, Yuan X et al (2017) Inspired by stenocara beetles: from water collection to high-efficiency water-in-oil emulsion separation. ACS Nano 11:760–769

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Wang P, Zhao T, Bian R, Wang G, Liu H (2017) Robust superhydrophobic carbon nanotube film with lotus leaf mimetic multiscale hierarchical structures. ACS Nano 11:12385–12391

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Su B, Tian Y, Jiang L (2016) Bioinspired interfaces with superwettability: from materials to chemistry. J Am Chem Soc 138:1727–1748

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Liu MJ, Wang ST, Jiang L (2017) Nature-inspired superwettability systems. Nat Rev Mater 2:17036. https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2017.36

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Li J, Xu CC, Guo CQ, Tian HF, Zha F, Guo L (2018) Underoil superhydrophilic desert sand layer for efficient gravity-directed water-in-oil emulsions separation with high flux. J Mater Chem A 6:223–230

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Chu ZL, Feng YJ, Seeger S (2015) Oil/water separation with selective superantiwetting/superwetting surface materials. Angew Chem Int Edit 54:2328–2338

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Du R, Gao X, Feng QL et al (2016) Microscopic dimensions engineering: stepwise manipulation of the surface wettability on 3D substrates for oil/water separation. Adv Mater 28:936–942

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Dai CA, Liu N, Cao YZ, Chen YN, Lu F, Feng L (2014) Fast formation of superhydrophobic octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA) coating for self-cleaning and oil/water separation. Soft Matter 10:8116–8121

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Chen QY, de Leon A, Advincula RC (2015) Inorganic-organic thiol-ene coated mesh for oil/water separation. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 7:18566–18573

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Yang J, Tang YC, Xu JQ, Chen BB, Tang H, Li CS (2015) Durable superhydrophobic/superoleophilic epoxy/attapulgite nanocomposite coatings for oil/water separation. Surf Coat Tech 272:285–290

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhang W, Liu N, Cao Y et al (2015) A solvothermal route decorated on different substrates: controllable separation of an oil/water mixture to a stabilized nanoscale emulsion. Adv Mater 27:7349–7355

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Zhang M, Wang CY, Wang SL, Li J (2013) Fabrication of superhydrophobic cotton textiles for water-oil separation based on drop-coating route. Carbohydr Polym 97:59–64

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Zhang JP, Seeger S (2011) Polyester materials with superwetting silicone nanofilaments for oil/water separation and selective oil absorption. Adv Funct Mater 21:4699–4704

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Liu X, Ge L, Li W, Wang X, Li F (2015) Layered double hydroxide functionalized textile for effective oil/water separation and selective oil adsorption. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 7:791–800

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. An AK, Guo JX, Lee EJ et al (2017) PDMS/PVDF hybrid electrospun membrane with superhydrophobic property and drop impact dynamics for dyeing wastewater treatment using membrane distillation. J Membr Sci 525:57–67

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Che HL, Huo M, Peng L et al (2015) CO2-responsive nanofibrous membranes with switchable oil/water wettability. Angew Chem Int Edit 54:8934–8938

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Zhu YZ, Zhang F, Wang D, Pei XF, Zhang WB, Jin J (2013) A novel zwitterionic polyelectrolyte grafted PVDF membrane for thoroughly separating oil from water with ultrahigh efficiency. J Mater Chem A 1:5758–5765

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Zhang XY, Li Z, Liu KS, Jiang L (2013) Bioinspired multifunctional foam with self-cleaning and oil/water separation. Adv Funct Mater 23:2881–2886

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Ruan CP, Ai KL, Li XB, Lu LH (2014) A superhydrophobic sponge with excellent absorbency and flame retardancy. Angew Chem Int Edit 53:5556–5560

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Chen FZ, Lu Y, Liu X et al (2017) Table salt as a template to prepare reusable porous PVDF-MWCNT foam for separation of immiscible oils/organic solvents and corrosive aqueous solutions. Adv Funct Mater 27. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201702926

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Li J, Xu CC, Zhang Y, Wang RF, Zha F, She HD (2016) Robust superhydrophobic attapulgite coated polyurethane sponge for efficient immiscible oil/water mixture and emulsion separation. J Mater Chem A 4:15546–15553

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Li J, Yan L, Tang XH, Feng H, Hu DC, Zha F (2016) Robust superhydrophobic fabric bag filled with polyurethane sponges used for vacuum-assisted continuous and ultrafast absorption and collection of oils from water. Adv Mater Interfaces 3. https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201500770

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Nguyen DD, Tai NH, Lee SB, Kuo WS (2012) Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties of graphene-based sponges fabricated using a facile dip coating method. Energy Environ Sci 5:7908–7912

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Si Y, Fu QX, Wang XQ et al (2015) Superelastic and superhydrophobic nanofiber-assembled cellular aerogels for effective separation of oil/water emulsions. ACS Nano 9:3791–3799

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Waite JH, Tanzer ML (1981) Polyphenolic substance of mytilus edulis: novel adhesive containing L-Dopa and Hydroxyproline. Science 212:1038–1040

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Lee H, Scherer NF, Messersmith PB (2006) Single-molecule mechanics of mussel adhesion. P Natl Acad Sci USA 103:12999–13003

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Hong S, Na YS, Choi S, Song IT, Kim WY, Lee H (2012) Non-covalent self-assembly and covalent polymerization co-contribute to polydopamine formation. Adv Funct Mater 22:4711–4717

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Anderson TH, Yu J, Estrada A, Hammer MU, Waite JH, Israelachvili JN (2010) The contribution of DOPA to substrate-peptide adhesion and internal cohesion of mussel-inspired synthetic peptide films. Adv Funct Mater 20:4196–4205

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Lee H, Dellatore SM, Miller WM, Messersmith PB (2007) Mussel-inspired surface chemistry for multifunctional coatings. Science 318:426–430

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Waite JH (2008) Surface chemistry—mussel power. Nat Mater 7:8–9

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  40. Zhu Q, Pan QM (2014) Mussel-inspired direct immobilization of nanoparticles and application for oil-water separation. ACS Nano 8:1402–1409

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Cao YZ, Zhang XY, Tao L et al (2013) Mussel-inspired chemistry and michael addition reaction for efficient oil/water separation. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 5:4438–4442

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Li JH, Zhao SF, Zhang GP et al (2015) A facile method to prepare highly compressible three-dimensional graphene-only sponge. J Mater Chem A 3:15482–15488

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Tian Y, Su B, Jiang L (2014) Interfacial material system exhibiting superwettability. Adv Mater 26:6872–6897

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Cassie ABD, Baxter S (1944) Wettability of porous surfaces. Trans Faraday Soc 40:546–551

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Zhu HG, Yang S, Chen DY et al (2016) A robust absorbent material based on light-responsive superhydrophobic melamine sponge for oil recovery. Adv Mater Interfaces 3. https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201500683

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Ch M, Mj P (1993) Oil sorption behavior of various sorbents studied by sorption capacity measurement and environmental scanning electron microscopy. Microsc Res Tech 25:447

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Lee C, Baik S (2010) Vertically-aligned carbon nano-tube membrane filters with superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. Carbon 48:2192–2197

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Yuan JK, Liu XG, Akbulut O et al (2008) Superwetting nanowire membranes for selective absorption. Nat Nanotechnol 3:332–336

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  49. Ren RP, Li W, Lv YK (2017) A robust, superhydrophobic graphene aerogel as a recyclable sorbent for oils and organic solvents at various temperatures. J Colloid Interfaces Sci 500:63–68

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Calcagnile P, Caputo I, Cannoletta D, Bettini S, Valli L, Demitri C (2017) A bio-based composite material for water remediation from oily contaminants. Mater Des 134:374–382

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Zhang L, Li HQ, Lai XJ, Su XJ, Liang T, Zeng XR (2017) Thiolated graphene-based superhydrophobic sponges for oil-water separation. Chem Eng J 316:736–743

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Su CP, Yang H, Zhao HP, Liu YL, Chen R (2017) Recyclable and biodegradable superhydrophobic and superoleophilic chitosan sponge for the effective removal of oily pollutants from water. Chem Eng J 330:423–432

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  53. Xu LM, Xiao GY, Chen CB et al (2015) Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic graphene aerogel prepared by facile chemical reduction. J Mater Chem A 3:7498–7504

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Li Y, Zhang ZZ, Wang MK, Men XH, Xue QJ (2017) One-pot fabrication of nanoporous polymer decorated materials: from oil-collecting devices to high-efficiency emulsion separation. J Mater Chem A 5:5077–5087

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by Science and Technology Projects of Tianjin (Grant No. 16ZXHLSF00200), and the Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of Tianjin Polytechnic University (201770058094).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Huicai Wang, Jibin Yang, Xiaping Liu, Zhongan Tao, Zhenwen Wang & Ruirui Yue

  2. State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Huicai Wang, Jibin Yang, Xiaping Liu, Zhongan Tao, Zhenwen Wang & Ruirui Yue

Authors
  1. Huicai Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jibin Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xiaping Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Zhongan Tao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Zhenwen Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Ruirui Yue
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huicai Wang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10853_2018_2938_MOESM1_ESM.docx

SEM images of the sponge coated with different concentrations of PDA (Fig. S1), SEM–EDX mapping of the PDA-ODT coated sponge (Fig S2), XPS spectrum and FTIR spectra (Fig S3), Digital image of the sliding angle, Photograph of droplets on the PDA-modified sponge, Variation of the WCAs of the sponges with different ODT concentrations, Photograph of the PDA-ODT-modified sponge immersed in water (Fig S4), The water contact angles of different pH droplet on the sponge (Fig S5), Photograph of the superhydrophobic sponge abraded by sandpaper and the variation of WCA after abrasion for 50 times by sandpaper (Fig S6), Photographs of the gravity-driven separation for n-hexane/water mixture (Fig S7), The purity of the collected oil under harsh situations (Fig S8), Video of the dynamic adhesion test (Movie S1), The gravity-driven separation process for chloroform/water and hexane/water mixture, respectively (Movie S2 and Movie S3), Video of the continuous oil-removing system (Movie S4), Video of the continuous oil-removing under turbulent situation (Movie S5). (DOCX 5370 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (AVI 1450 kb)

Supplementary material 3 (AVI 4409 kb)

Supplementary material 4 (AVI 8655 kb)

Supplementary material 5 (AVI 9000 kb)

Supplementary material 6 (AVI 5969 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, H., Yang, J., Liu, X. et al. A robust 3D superhydrophobic sponge for in situ continuous oil removing. J Mater Sci 54, 1255–1266 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2938-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2938-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation