Fabrication of three-dimensional superhydrophobic membranes with high porosity via simultaneous electrospraying and electrospinning

•A facile and effective method to fabricate 3D superhydrophobic structure material.•Superhydrophobic surface and bulk of membrane causing durable water-repellence.•Novel membrane for membrane distillation and oil/water separation application.

Highly porous membranes with superhydrophobic structures throughout their depth were successfully fabricated via simultaneous electrospraying of silica/DMAc colloids and electrospinning of PVDF/DMAc solutions. The morphology of the membranes could be tuned by adjusting the time of ultrasonication to disperse the silica/DMAc colloids. The newly developed membrane with hierarchical nanoparticle-microbead-fiber structures exhibited a high water contact angle of 163° and an extraordinary low sliding angle of 3°; it also showed superior performance in both membrane distillation and oil-water separation. This facile method presents great potentials for scalable fabrication of porous materials with stable superhydrophobicity.