title: Green Approach to the Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Mesh Surface for Oil/Water Separation.
abstract: We report a simple and environment friendly method to fabricate superhydrophobic metallic mesh surfaces for oil/water separation. The obtained mesh surface exhibits superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity after it was dried in an oven at 200 °C for 10 min. A rough silver layer is formed on the mesh surface after immersion, and the spontaneous adsorption of airborne carbon contaminants on the silver surface lower the surface free energy of the mesh. No low-surface-energy reagents and/or volatile organic solvents are used. In addition, we demonstrate that by using the mesh box, oils can be separated and collected from the surface of water repeatedly, and that high separation efficiencies of larger than 92 % are retained for various oils. Moreover, the superhydrophobic mesh also possesses excellent corrosion resistance and thermal stability. Hence, these superhydrophobic meshes might be good candidates for the practical separation of oil from the surface of water.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (P. R. China). jjbxsjz@foxmail.com.|Key Laboratory for Microstructural Control of Metallic Materials of Jiangxi Province, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (P. R. China). jjbxsjz@foxmail.com.
authors.forename: Fajun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (P. R. China).
authors.forename: Junfei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ou
keywords: adsorption; hydrophobic effect; interfaces; oil/water separation; surface chemistry