A self-cleaning underwater superoleophobic mesh for oil-water separation

Lianbin Zhang, Yujiang Zhong, Dong Kyu Cha, Peng Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

290 Scopus citations

Abstract

Oil-water separation has recently become a global challenging task because of the frequent occurrence of oil spill accidents due to the offshore oil production and transportation, and there is an increasing demand for the development of effective and inexpensive approaches for the cleaning-up of the oily pollution in water system. In this study, a self-cleaning underwater superoleophobic mesh that can be used for oil-water separation is prepared by the layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of sodium silicate and TiO2 nanoparticles on the stainless steel mesh. The integration of the self-cleaning property into the all-inorganic separation mesh by using TiO2 enables the convenient removal of the contaminants by ultraviolet (UV) illumination, and allows for the facile recovery of the separation ability of the contaminated mesh, making it promising for practial oil-water separation applications.
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalScientific Reports
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 31 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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