A biomimetic 3D ordered multimodal porous carbon with hydrophobicity for oil–water separation

• The biomimetic 3DOMPC was fabricated by a dual-templating method.
• The structural color of 3DOMPC was due to the hierarchical ordered porous structure.
• The wettability of 3DOMPC was studied upon the contact angle measurement and the oil absorption experiment.
• The biomimetic 3DOMPC could effectively and selectively collect oil from water surface for oil–water separation.

We present a dual-templating method to synthesize a biomimetic 3D ordered multimodal porous carbon (3DOMPC) using the phenolic resol as a carbon source and the amphiphilic triblock copolymer surfactant (F127) as the mesopore-generating agent on the polystyrene colloidal crystal scaffold. The biomimetic 3DOMPC shows the brilliant structural color originating from the periodical, hierarchical ordered porous structure. More importantly, the resulting 3DOMPC exhibits hydrophobicity (water contact angle, 120°) and superoleophilicity (oil contact angle, 0°) with high oil absorption capacity, which can effectively and selectively collect oil from water surface, providing a potential candidate to the traditional oil-absorbent materials for the oil–water separation.