Mussel-inspired fabrication of superhydrophobic cellulose-based paper for the integration of excellent antibacterial activity, effective oil/water separation and photocatalytic degradation

Oily wastewater and organic dye wastewater discharged from modern industry have given rise to serious environmental pollution problem. Noticeably, the integration of superhydrophobicity and photocatalysis provides a facile and efficient way to address these issues. Inspired by mussel-chemistry, we fabricated a multifunctional paper through polydopamine (PDA)-induced in situ growth of Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on paper surface followed by treatment with n-dodecyl mercaptan (n-DM). The resultant paper (PDA@Ag@n-DM) not only exhibited superhydrophobicity, but also displayed excellent antibacterial activity attributing to synergetic effect from bacterial adhesion resistance and photocatalytic bactericidal action. The PDA@Ag@n-DM paper showed good oil absorption capability, excellent separation properties for oil-water mixtures and water-in-oil emulsions, and obvious photocatalytic degradation ability for organic dye under visible light irradiation . Moreover, the PDA@Ag@n-DM paper presented enhanced mechanical, environmental and chemical stability. We believed that the as-prepared multifunctional paper will have great application promising in oily wastewater treatment and environmental remediation.