Robust and stable organic sulfonate sodium salt-coated superhydrophilic mesh for ultra-fast gravity-drive oil-water separation

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 150° and a sliding angle lower 5°, while the superhydrophilic copper mesh (SICM) had promising anti-oil pollution property with WCA near 0°. 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 33,441 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.