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An unusual superhydrophilic/superoleophobic sponge for oil-water separation

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Abstract

Development of porous materials with anti-fouling and remote controllability is highly desired for oil-water separation application yet still challenging. Herein, to address this challenge, a sponge with unusual superhydrophilicity/superoleophobicity and magnetic property was fabricated through a dip-coating process. To exploit its superhydrophilic/superoleophobic property, the obtained sponge was used as a reusable water sorbent scaffold to collect water from bulk oils without absorbing any oil. Owing to its magnetic property, the sponge was manipulated remotely by a magnet without touching it directly during the whole water collection process, which could potentially lower the cost of the water collection process. Apart from acting as a water-absorbing material, the sponge can also be used as affiliation material to separate water from oil-water mixture and oil in water emulsion selectively, when fixed into a cone funnel. This research provides a key addition to the field of oil-water separation materials.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11704321) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2016JL020 and ZR2019MEM044), and the Yantai Science and Technology Plan Projects (2019XDHZ087).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Materials Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai, 264405, China

    Jingwei Lu, Xiaotao Zhu, Bo Wang, Yuanming Song, Guina Ren & Xiangming Li

  2. Shandong Key Laboratory of Optical Communication Science and Technology, School of Physics Science and Information Technology, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252000, China

    Xiao Miao

Authors
  1. Jingwei Lu
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  2. Xiaotao Zhu
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  3. Xiao Miao
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  4. Bo Wang
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  5. Yuanming Song
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  6. Guina Ren
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  7. Xiangming Li
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Correspondence to Xiaotao Zhu or Guina Ren.

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Disclosure of potential conflicts of interests The authors declare no potential conflicts of interests.

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Lu, J., Zhu, X., Miao, X. et al. An unusual superhydrophilic/superoleophobic sponge for oil-water separation. Front. Mater. Sci. 14, 341–350 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-020-0516-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-020-0516-6

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