Facile fabrication of underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh for highly efficient oil/water separation

•Underwater superoleophobic TiO2 mesh was fabricated by a facile spray-coating process.•The mesh was used to separate a series of oil from water with the separation efficiency up to 99.0%.•The mesh can be reused more than 40 times with the separation efficiency still above 97.5%.

The removal of oil and organic pollutants from water is highly desired because of the frequent oil spill accidents and increase of industrial oily wastewater. Here, underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh was fabricated through spraying TiO2 nanoparticles and polyurethane mixtures onto stainless steel mesh. The underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh was then used to separate water from oil/water mixtures, where only the water permeates through the mesh while the oil is repelled on the mesh. In addition, the separation efficiency of the coated mesh is as high as 99.0%. Furthermore, the TiO2 coated mesh still maintained high separation efficiency over 97.5% and stable recyclability after 40 separation cycles. Thus, such superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic TiO2 coated mesh is a very potential material for the application of oil spill cleanup and industrial oily wastewater remediation.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideThe underwater superoleophobicTiO2 coated meshes can separate oil from water with the separation efficiency up to 99.0%.