Robust and Stable Copper Mesh with Controllable Wetting Behavior for Ultra-Fast Gravity-Drive Oil-Water Separation

Abstract

Due to its special wetting behavior and high selectivity, super wetting copper mesh is considered to be an ideal candidate material for efficient separation of water/oil mixtures. However, the oil-water separation meshes suffer from the problems of poor stability and durability, leading to the failure of the separation. In this paper, a robust and stable copper mesh with controllable wetting behavior had been successfully prepared by decorating the copper mesh via the chemical grafting of the 3-thiol-propyl trimethoxysilane (KH590) and the subsequent reaction with 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropane-1-sulfonate sodium (AMPS). It showed that the superhydrophobic copper mesh (SUCM) possessed superhydrophobicity towards various liquid droplets with a WCA of higher 150o, while the superhydrophilic copper mesh (SICM) had promising anti-oil pollution property with WCA near 0o. The SUCM and SICM also had excellent acid and alkali resistance. The obtained SICM had preeminent separation efficiency higher 99% and extremely high permeability flux of 33441.6 L·m-2·h-1 for gravity-drive oil-water separation, and possessed excellent recyclability even after 20 oil-water separation cycles. In addition, the SICM had outstanding anti-abrasion mechanical stability. This work provided a simple and effective method for the preparation of special wettability materials, and promoted the practical application of oil/water separation mesh.

Keywords: copper mesh, superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic, stable, Oil-water separation