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Facile fabrication of robust superhydrophobic cotton fabrics modified by polysiloxane nanowires for oil/water separation

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Abstract

The removal of oil and organic pollutants from water is highly desired due to increasing industrial oil-contaminated wastewater, as well as frequent oil spill accidents. In this paper, superhydrophobic and superoleophilic fabrics were facilely fabricated for oil/water separation application via in situ growth of polysiloxane nanowires on cotton fabrics. The polysiloxane nanowires were immobilized on the cotton fabrics through a self-assembly process of alkylsilane on the microfibers of fabrics. The combination of the hierarchical structure and the low-surface-energy polysiloxane nanowires greatly contributed to the superhydrophobicity of the fabrics. Furthermore, the superhydrophobicity remained even after they were exposed to different chemicals for 72 h and strong ultraviolet irradiation and repeated abrasion, indicating excellent stability. More importantly, the as-prepared cotton fabrics were successfully used for separating various oil/water mixtures by a solely gravity-driven process with high separation efficiency and desirable durability. The cotton fabrics are commercially available, low-cost, and environmentally friendly materials, and thus such superhydrophobic and superoleophilic cotton fabrics could be very attractive for oil/water separation and oil spill cleanup when high flexibility, strength, and chemical resistance are taken into account.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the University Scientific Research Innovation Team Program of the Education Department of Sichuan Province [Grant Number 16TD0009], the Scientific Research Innovation Team Program of Southwest Petroleum University [Grant Number 2013XJZT005], the Major Breeding Project of the Education Department of Sichuan Province [Grant Number 13CZ0027], Open Experiment Program of SWPU [Grant Number KSZ16106], and the Open Project Program of High-Tech Organic Fibers Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province.

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Author notes

  1. Bin Wang, Dong Xiang and Yuntao Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Wang, Binghang Lei, Yuhao Tang, Dong Xiang, Hui Li, Qi Ma, Chunxia Zhao & Yuntao Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, People’s Republic of China

    Yuntao Li

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  1. Bin Wang
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Correspondence to Dong Xiang or Yuntao Li.

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Wang, B., Lei, B., Tang, Y. et al. Facile fabrication of robust superhydrophobic cotton fabrics modified by polysiloxane nanowires for oil/water separation. J Coat Technol Res 15, 611–621 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11998-017-0002-y

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