Medical textiles, owing to their inherent porous structure and moisture-absorbing properties, create an environment conducive to bacterial adhesion and growth. This phenomenon can result in cross-infections among healthcare personnel and patients, posing a significant health risk. Consequently, the development of effective antibacterial textiles that impede bacterial attachment, proliferation, and growth is of paramount importance in the medical industry. In this study, we engineered a multifunctional antibacterial textile known as F-PDA@ZIF textile. The multifunctional antibacterial F-PDA@ZIF textile was obtained by attaching PDA@ZIF nanoparticles with both photothermal and ionic antibacterial properties to the surface of the textile and then performing superhydrophobic modification. With the optimization of the impregnation times of PDA@ZIF nanoparticles and the fluorination modification of the textile, the resulted textile exhibited a water contact angle (WCA) of 152 degrees and showed excellent photothermal properties under both laser and sunlight exposure. Remarkably, the F-PDA@ZIF textile demonstrated a 99 % antibacterial rate when subjected to laser irradiation in a bacterial solution. Furthermore, its superhydrophobic surface reduced cell adhesion by approximately 90 %. Upon sunlight irradiation, its photothermal antibacterial capability led to the complete elimination of remaining bacteria. The textile could achieve a synergistic effect of repelling and killing through superhydrophobic-mediated passive anti-adhesion strategy and active antibacterial mechanisms involving ions and photothermal effects, making it a promising candidate for medical textiles.

Underwater superoleophobic coatings, known for their anti-oil-fouling properties, have garnered significant interest in the context of oily wastewater remediation. However, these coatings encounter challenges in preventing viscous oil contamination and structural damage, and easily become ineffective when treating crude oil/water pollutants. Additionally, the non-renewable and non-biodegradable components pose a huge risk to environmental safety and sustainable development. Herein, a cellulose-based coating that combines robust underwater superoleophobicity with anti-viscous oil-fouling characteristic is designed via the extraction of micro/nanoscale heteromorphic cellulose crystals (EHCC) and subsequent crosslinking with carboxymethyl chitosan (CCS). Leveraging the hierarchical micro/nanostructures constructed by EHCC and intensified hydration capability facilitated by multiple hydrogen bonding interactions, the EHCC-CCS coating demonstrates excellent superhydrophilicity/underwater superoleophobicity and ultralow-viscous oil-adhesion property. Moreover, the EHCC-CCS coating exhibits robust chemical resistance and mechanical tolerance. Importantly, it adapts effectively to various flat and porous substrates, offering outstanding anti-oil-fouling and self-cleaning performances. Notably, the EHCC-CCS-coated textile is applied in separating immiscible oil/water mixtures with varying oil viscosities, and the EHCC-CCS-coated PVDF membrane achieves to purify surfactant-stabilized crude oil/water emulsion. The findings provide a straightforward and cost-effective approach for large-scale production of fully biobased coatings with durable underwater superoleophobicity and excellent anti-viscous oil-fouling capability for complex oily wastewater remediation.

In recent years, intelligent response membrane materials have aroused considerable interest in controllable oil–water separation. However, challenges such as unstable response repeatability and easy bacterial contamination continue to hinder their effective use. Herein, a superhydrophobic fabric with pH responsiveness and antibacterial property were synthesized by combing (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane with AgNPs and pH-responsive polymer on a fabric substrate. The fabric persisted superhydrophobicity with a WCA of 156° under natural conditions, while underwent a controlled transition of surface wettability in acidic environments. Heavy oil–water mixtures and light oil–water mixtures achieved controllable separation both before and after pH response. The fabric exhibited outstanding oil–water separation capability, achieving a separation efficiency of 98.0

The discharge of pollutants, including oily wastewater and heavy metal ions, into water has been on the rise, posing significant risks to environmental integrity and public health. Moreover, the heavy metal ions that cause more serious damages are easily neglected in oil–water separation. Herein, a superhydrophobic wood with photocatalytic capability for fast oil–water separation and heavy metal detection was designed and prepared via coating epoxy resin (ER) and sulfhydryl modified titanium dioxide (s-TiO2) on the wood through a pre-curing method. Owing to the special porous structure and superhydrophobicity of the s-TiO2@ER wood, the oil–water mixture was successfully separated with a separation flux of 11,350 kg·m−2·h−1 and separation efficiency of 99.3 %. Due to the pre-curing method, the s-TiO2 was adhered to ER surface with the −SH groups exposed to the outermost, which was beneficial for the detection and adsorption of heavy metal ions. When adsorbing heavy ions of Cu2+, Fe3+, Co2+, and Cr3+, the s-TiO2@ER wood displayed colors of green, yellow, pink, and brown, respectively, which could be used in heavy metal detection during the oil–water separation process. Importantly, the s-TiO2@ER wood exhibited a high heavy metal adsorption efficiency with the Cu2+ ion adsorption capability reaching 137 mg/g. Furthermore, the s-TiO2@ER wood demonstrated a good photodegradation capability, and the organic pollutants adsorbed on the wood after use could be degraded to prevent secondary pollution. This work provides a porous photocatalytic superhydrophobic wood with high oil–water separation efficiency and excellent heavy metal detection and adsorption ability, which is promising in the field of treating complex oily wastewater containing heavy metals.

The discharge of pollutants, including oily wastewater and heavy metal ions, into water has been on the rise, posing significant risks to environmental integrity and public health. Moreover, the heavy metal ions that cause more serious damages are easily neglected in oil-water separation. Herein, a superhydrophobic wood with photocatalytic capability for fast oil-water separation and heavy metal detection was designed and prepared via coating epoxy resin (ER) and sulfhydryl modified titanium dioxide (s-TiO2) 2 ) on the wood through a pre-curing method. Owing to the special porous structure and superhydrophobicity of the s-TiO2@ER 2 @ER wood, the oil-- water mixture was successfully separated with a separation flux of 11,350 kg & sdot; m- 2 & sdot; h- 1 and separation efficiency of 99.3 %. Due to the pre-curing method, the s-TiO2 2 was adhered to ER surface with the-SH groups exposed to the outermost, which was beneficial for the detection and adsorption of heavy metal ions. When adsorbing heavy ions of Cu2+, 2+ , Fe3+, 3+ , Co2+, 2+ , and Cr3+, 3+ , the s-TiO2@ER 2 @ER wood displayed colors of green, yellow, pink, and brown, respectively, which could be used in heavy metal detection during the oil-water separation process. Importantly, the s-TiO2@ER 2 @ER wood exhibited a high heavy metal adsorption efficiency with the Cu2+ 2+ ion adsorption capability reaching 137 mg/g. Furthermore, the s-TiO2@ER 2 @ER wood demonstrated a good photodegradation capability, and the organic pollutants adsorbed on the wood after use could be degraded to prevent secondary pollution. This work provides a porous photocatalytic superhydrophobic wood with high oil-water separation efficiency and excellent heavy metal detection and adsorption ability, which is promising in the field of treating complex oily wastewater containing heavy metals.

Wearable piezoresistive sensors have aroused considerable attention for their huge potential in emerging applications such as healthcare monitoring and intelligent electronics. However, the fabrication of piezoresistive sensors that combine excellent sensing performance with outstanding working reliability in watery environments still remains challenging. Herein, a superhydrophobic polyurethane (PU) sponge was proposed as a piezoresistive sensor through the synthesis of d-asparagine-modified MXene nanosheets (MXene-NH2) and coating of a conductive cross-linkable layer constructed by dihydroxyl-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS(OH)) and MXene-NH2 nanosheets. The microscale sponge skeleton and nanoscale PDMS-MXene nanosheet wrinkles formed a hierarchically rough structure in support of superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 160 degrees. Benefiting from the chemically cross-linkable network and strong adhesion of PDMS-MXene nanosheet coating, the obtained PDMS-MXene@PU sponge exhibited a robust water repellency with water contact angles (WCAs) larger than 150 degrees after enduring chemical and physical damages. Owing to the synergistic effect of the production of microcrack junctions in the PDMS-MXene nanosheet layer and contact separation between conductive backbones, the PDMS-MXene@PU sensor was successfully applied in monitoring full-scale human motions (e.g., blowing, facial expression, finger and knee bending, etc.) with excellent sensing performances of the gauge factor reaching -1.9. The findings conceivably stand out as a methodology to fabricate robust superhydrophobic piezoresistive sensors with desirable sensing property for innovative and broad applications even under special working conditions.

At present, many oil-water separation membranes are being developed to purify oily wastewater. However, oily wastewater often contains heavy metal, which are often difficult to dispose during separation. Furthermore, most of the oil-water separation membranes cannot be degraded after scrap, producing pollution to environment. Herein, the polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan@carnauba wax (PCGCW) membrane with heavy metal adsorption and biodegradation performance was acquired by electrospinning and spraying process. The acquired PCGCW membrane had excellent mechanical properties after crosslinking glutaraldehyde (GA). Furthermore, the composite membrane had excellent superhydrophobic property (WCA = 154 degrees) with a rolling angle of 2 degrees, due to the introduction of carnauba wax. Exhilaratingly, for emulsions with surfactant, it had a high separation flux with 19,217 Lm(-2)h(-1)bar(-1) and splendid an oil purity over 99.9 %. Besides, the efficiency of oil purity and separation flux remained stable even after 10 separations. In addition, the PCGCW membrane had the ability to adsorb heavy metals with adsorption capacity of 51-106 mg/g for Cu2+, Fe3+, Co2+ ions. Foremost, the superhydrophobic PCGCW membrane was biodegradable, with degrading 29.76 % within 40 days. The prepared composite membrane had the advantages of low cost, high separation flux, great repeatability, adsorbable heavy metals and degradability, which had a vast application prospect.

Heterointerface engineering is a promising strategy to realize electronic redistribution and enhance oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity. However, preparing and designing heterojunction with appropriate band structures and outstanding performance remains a challenge. Herein, a novel hollow CoP/CeO2 heterojunction (h-CoP/CeO2) is constructed by electrospinning and a selective phosphorization process. Hollow structure can create more active sites and promote the intimate contact between catalysts and electrolyte to facilitate the mass and charge transfer. Mott-Schottky plots demonstrate p-n heterojunction is formed between p-CoP and n-CeO2, which induces a strong intrinsic field and redistribution of charges. Attributed to its hollow structure and p-n heterojunction, the optimal h-CoP/CeO2 prepared with appropriate PVP content and [Co/Ce] ratio exhibits remarkable alkaline OER activity (overpotential = 198 mV at 10 mA cm(-2), Tafel slope = 83 mV dec(-1)). This result is better than or comparable to previous reports. Besides, h-CoP/CeO2 acing as a co-catalyst can improve the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of TiO2 nanorods, which not only increases the photocurrent density, but also reduces the onset potential (negatively shifted 58 mV for TiO2/CoP-CeO2). This study provided a new insight for constructing hollow heterojunction with uniform distribution of each component to enhance OER and PEC performance.

Organic thermoelectric systems have revealed enticing prospects for repeatable temperature sensing and fire -warning in flexible materials. However, how to achieve high thermoelectric efficiency and highly sensitive thermosensation is still a huge challenge for them. Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication a flexible thermo-electric nanocoating with layered bridged heterostructure through the co-assembly of cellulose modified poly-pyrrole (PPy-CS) nanowires and MXene nanosheets, which offers compelling opportunity for addressing the above challenge. The layered bridged heterostructure endowed the nanocoating with repeatable sensitive thermoelectric response, through which the nanocoating accurately detected the temperature-rise stage before ignition, and triggered the fire alarm in 1.9 s when encountering fire. Even in the event of a second burning, the nanocoating still triggered the fire alarm in 2.3 s. Meanwhile, the nanocoating formed layered porous structure when being burned and exhibited outstanding flame retardancy. The coated PET film reached a limiting oxygen index of 31.4 % and self-extinguished in vertical burning test. The nanocoating holds great promise for the applications in improving the fire-safety of flexible polymer materials.

Due to its special wetting behavior and high selectivity, super-wetting mesh is considered as an ideal candidate material for efficient separation of water/oil mixture. However, the oil-water separation mesh suffers from the problems of poor stability and durability, leading to the failure of the separation. In this paper, a robust and stable superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic copper mesh 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 KH590 condensation compound was tightly coated on the surface and the superhydrophobic copper mesh (SUCM) possessed excellent superhydrophobicity towards various liquid droplets with a WCA of higher 150o and a sliding angle lower 5o, 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 L·m−²·h−¹ for gravity-driven toluene-water separation, and possessed excellent recyclability even after 20 cycles. Moreover, the SICM could be used to separate the oil-water mixture of aqueous solution with different pH (pH=5/7/8) and aqueous sodium chloride solution with different concentrations (5%/25%/50%/saturated aqueous sodium chloride solution). 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 with excellent acid/alkali resistance and mechanical stability, and promoted the practical application of oil/water separation mesh.

Self-cleaning films with superhydrophobicity and photocatalytic capability have attracted considerable interest in recent years for the synthetical chemical and physical self-cleaning performance to overcome individual inherent limitations. In the present work, a dual-functional self-cleaning film is proposed through the design of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanopillar array, swelling absorption of anatase-typed TiO2 nanoparticles, and final low-surface-energy modification of 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltrimethoxysilane (PFDTS). Benefiting from the hierarchically mountain-like structure constructed by the PDMS nanopillar array and swelling absorbed TiO2 nanoparticles, the self-cleaning film presents a robust superhydrophobicity to resist chemical and mechanical damages (e.g. solvent/acid/alkali immersion, stretching, water impact, and sand abrasion). Combining the photocatalytic activity with adequate loading of TiO2 nanoparticles, the self-cleaning film demonstrates a great degradation capability of organic pollutants with a degradation efficiency over 98 %. Importantly, owing to the superhydrophobicity repairability induced by the migration of fluorocarbon chains, the self-cleaning film can highly recover the water repellency with a water contact angle (WCA) of 155o even after long-term irradiation under UV light. The findings conceivably promote the development and application of the self-cleaning materials with superhydrophobic and photocatalytic properties.

Recently, the crude oil spill has brought inevitable harm to the global ecological environment. Due to the highviscosity crude oil, it is wise to take advantage of the photothermal/electrothermal effects of the membrane to separate the crude oil from the water. However, the functional separation membrane always suffers from low photothermal/electrothermal effects and poor stability. Herein, the vinyl polyvinylidene fluoride/mercapto carbon nanotubes@vinyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (PVDF-a/CNT-s@PDMS) membrane with fast photothermal/electrothermal effects and organic absorption property was successfully prepared by electrospinning and multi-layer loading method. The prepared PVDF-a/CNT-s@PDMS membrane resisted a variety of liquids and had stable superhydrophobicity (WCA = 156 degrees). Furthermore, the membrane maintained superhydrophobicity even suffer from water and milk under the applied voltage condition. After 100 wear resistance tests, the membrane maintained stable superhydrophobicity and the separation rate remained unchanged. The surface temperature of the membrane rapidly approached to the maximum temperature in 30 s, showing a rapid photothermal/electrothermal effects, and the average separation rate of crude oil was 1185 kg m- 2 h-1 & sdot;bar- 1. Meanwhile, the membrane exhibited outstanding efficiency for separate immiscible oil-water mixtures. Importantly, the incorporation of the sulfhydryl group enhanced the special ability of the composite membrane to adsorb organic dyes from oil phase. Therefore, the PVDF-a/CNT-s@PDMS membrane has a wide range of potential application in the domain of oil-water separation.

Functional membranes with electrothermal/photothermal effects are considered an effective method for separating water/viscous crude oil mixtures. However, the loading of photothermal and electrothermal particles in polymeric membranes with poor compatibility will deteriorate the membrane performance, leading to the unstable photothermal/electrothermal effects. Therefore, we prepared a hydrophobic sandwich structure polyvinylidene fluoride/reduced graphene oxide/polydimethylsiloxane (PVDF/rGO/PDMS) composite membrane using a two-step electrospinning process, which improved the binding force between the photothermal/electrothermal particles and the matrix with the composite membrane exhibiting super fast electric heating and photothermal effect. The temperature of the composite membrane surface rapidly reached to 162.5. C within 30 s at 25 V. In addition, the addition of graphene (GO) improved the mechanical properties of the composite membrane. Meantime, the composite membrane possessed stable hydrophobicity and lipophilicity, which was beneficial for separating water/viscous crude oil mixtures. Owing to the controllable pore structure and special wetting behavior, the water-in-oil emulsion was successfully separated. Importantly, the separation rates of the water/crude oil mixtures under the electrothermal effect was 2340 kg center dot m(-2)center dot h(-1)center dot bar(-1). Thus, this study provides a new method for preparing hydrophobic sandwich-like PVDF/rGO/PDMS composite membrane with electrothermal/ photothermal effects, which has significant potential for engineering applications in high-viscosity crude oil removal and water-in-oil emulsion separation.

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.

Superhydrophobic material has great potential applications in the field of anti-icing due to its special wettability. However, the poor wear resistance of the material has restricted its practical applications. Based on this, a simple two-step spray method was used to prepare a self-healing and robust superhydrophobic coating with excellent photothermal/electrothermal effect for anti-icing using epoxy modified ethylene octene copolymer (POEG) resin as the substrate layer and the fluorinated carbon black as the top coating. Results showed that the obtained composite coating showed multi-level rough structure and possessed excellent superhydrophobicity toward water droplets with different pH. Meanwhile, the composite coating could resist abrasion and kept superhydropbobicity even 250 cycles abrasion test with a water contact angle higher than 150o. When the surface was subjected to the intense abrasion, the rough structure and the superhydrophobic property of the surface were destroyed. However, it could be restored by the abrasion of the rougher surface. In addition, the scratches on the surface could be completely repaired by the heat treatment, indicating the good self-healing performance of the composite coating. Due to the existence of the carbon black particles, the superhydrophobic coating had good photothermal/electrothermal effects, which endowed the surface with excellent anti-icing performance of removing the icing under the conditions of electrothermal and light. This paper provides a simple and convenient way to prepare functional self-healing superhydrophobic coating, and a new idea for the preparation of anti-icing coating.

Anti-counterfeiting technologies are crucial for securing the authenticity and proof of commodities, in which the optical information encryption/decryption has attracted extensive attention for its overriding advantages of visibility and convenience. Inspired by the unique transparency transformation phenomenon of Diphylleia grayi petals, a controllable hydrophilic/superhydrophobic patterned coating with water-triggered opaque to translucent transition is proposed through the construction of a superhydrophobic coating, subsequent air plasma etching under a mask, and final hydrophilic modification to introduce stable invisible patterns. The superhydrophobic region exhibits great water repellency with a water contact angle (WCA) at 157°, while the hydrophilic region quickly absorbs water with a WCA at 61°. The patterned coating presents an opaque state for the serious light scattering induced by the rough microstructure and large refractive index difference between the coating and air, while the hydrophilic patterns on the coating transform to translucent after water infiltration for the reduced roughness and close refractive indexes of the coating and water. The information revealing is rapid and reversible, and demonstrates heat and long-term stability and great reusability. The findings conceivably stand out as a new methodology to fabricate controllable superwettable coatings with optical information encryption/decryption capability for application in anti-counterfeiting.

Recently, the membrane separation materials show promising applications in the fields of crude oil removal because of their low energy consumption and less secondary pollution. However, the membrane separation materials suffer problem of low separation efficiency due to the high viscosity of crude oil. Here, a super-hydrophobic material with Joule heat and photothermal effect was prepared by decorating the delignified wood with reduced graphene oxide (GSH) and vinyl terminated polydimethylsiloxane (V-PDMS) through thiol-ene click reaction. The prepared PDMS@GSH wood exhibited stable superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 156 degrees. Meanwhile, the GSH layer provided promising electrothermal effect that endowed the PDMS@GSH wood with excellent crude oil/water separation capability under the Joule heat with a surface temperature of 139 degrees C and separation rate of 1.78 x 10(5) kg m(-3) h(-1). Besides, the PDMS@GSH wood displayed a good photothermal effect that assisted with the Joule heat to heat the wood for crude oil removal to save energy. More importantly, the PDMS was crosslinked with GSH on the wood via thiol-ene click reaction, leading to the stable superhydrophobicity and electrical conductivity in strong acid or alkali environment. This material has broad application prospects in crude oil clean-up due to its high separation speed and easy large-scale production.

Superhydrophobic materials possess prospective applications of oily wastewater treatment due to their high efficiency and easy operation. Nevertheless, most superhydrophobic materials are difficult to separate oil-water emulsion, especially for highly viscous water-in-crude oil emulsion. Herein, a superhydrophobic wood with excellent Joule heat and demulsification was proposed by chemically treating the natural wood and subsequent coating of the carboxyl-modified carbon nanotubes (cCNTs) for providing conductive pathways, poly-ethylenimide (PEI) for supporting demulsification and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for hydrophobic modification. The fabricated superhydrophobic PDMS@PEI-cCNTs wood displayed a water contact angle of 155 degrees and great compression property with a nearly undamaged structure at a strain of 40 % after 50 compression tests, which could separate and recover oil from the oil-water mixture via absorption-extrusion process. Besides, due to the filtration and electrostatic interaction of the PDMS@PEI-cCNTs wood, the water-in-oil emulsion was demulsified quickly with a separation efficiency greater than 99.7 %. Meanwhile, the PDMS@PEI-cCNTs wood showed a good Joule heat capability, and the surface temperature reached 160 degrees C at 35 V of voltage within 120 s, which largely reduced the viscosity of water-in-crude oil emulsion. Thus, the PDMS@PEI-cCNTs wood was successful in separating the water-in-crude oil emulsion via Joule heat capability with a separation rate of 4.33 x 10(4) kg center dot m(-3)center dot h(-1) and a separation efficiency of 93.4 %. The material developed in this study has wide range of applications in treating the stable crude oil-water emulsion with high viscosity.

Natural wood, with its unique porous structure, has been widely modified for separating oil-water mixtures. However, the separation efficiency is often unsatisfactory, and little attention is focused on mitigating secondary pollution after its usable lifespan. Here, a superhydrophobic material consisting of delignified wood coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was prepared. The resulting PDMS@TiO2 wood possessed outstanding superhydrophobicity, with a water contact angle of 160?degrees. Owing to its longitudinal channels and excellent water repellency, the wood was successfully used to separate oil-water mixtures, with a high permeation flux of up to 6111 L.m(-2).h(-1) and separation efficiency of up to 93.4%. Importantly, PDMS and other oil pollutants were capable of being largely degraded after use via photocatalysis of the TiO2 layer, and the degradation reached 8.56 wt% within 30 days. The results from this study provide a method for fabricating functional superhydrophobic wood with photocatalytic degradation ability for efficient oily wastewater treatment.