Ecofriendly superhydrophobic fabrics for ultra-fast oil/water separation by self-assembly

The growing interest in superhydrophobic materials for oil/water separation has become evident. Concurrently, there exists a pressing requirement for superhydrophobic materials capable of achieving ultra-fast oil/water separation with an environmentally friendly, low-cost, and facile preparation strategy. Herein, an ecofriendly superhydrophobic fabric is prepared through a process involving self-assembly between iron ions and 1,3,5-benzene tricarboxylic acid (H3BTC), followed by hydrophobic modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). In this process, gallic acid (GA) undergoes self-polymerization and reacts with ethylenediamine (ED) by the Schiff base reaction to form polymers, which act as metal active sites before the self-assembly between iron ions and H3BTC takes place. The obtained superhydrophobic fabric with self-cleaning function features ultra-fast oil/water separation performance, with a flux of 32,527.18 ± 243.22 L m−2 h−1 and a separation efficiency of 99.87 ± 0.02 %. Moreover, the superhydrophobic fabric has good recyclability. Even after 30 times of oil/water separation, it still has ultra-fast separation rate and superhigh separation efficiency, with a flux of 20,678.17 ± 137.58 L m−2 h−1 and 99.47 ± 0.16 % separation efficiency. In addition, the superhydrophobic fabric maintains outstanding superhydrophobicity after treatment in the chemical or physical environment.