Poly lauryl methacrylate modified superhydrophobic Fe foam, with excellent stability and magnetic oil/water separation ability

With the acceleration of the industrial process, oil-water separation is an urgent problem for oil spill accidents and wastewater treatments. Exploiting superhydrophobic materials applied in harsh environments and remote drives remains a significant challenge in solving oil moisture problems. An alternative strategy to solve this problem has been demonstrated by decorating poly lauryl methacrylate (LMA) on Fe foam via the solution polymerization method. The as-prepared Fe foam possesses good superhydrophobicity (>150°) under broad pH (1 < pH < 12) and a wide temperature range (−55°C-180 °C). Furthermore, outstanding separation efficiency (>99.1%), high cycle stability (>50 times), and high oil flux (63.7–114.6 kL m−2 h−1) against diverse oil/water mixtures can be realized under gravity. Interestingly, oil harvesting capacity above or beneath the water can be realized by remote magnetic driving as well.