A functionally integrated device for effective and facile oil spill cleanup.

In this Letter, we have fabricated a multifunctional device for highly efficient and inexpensive oil spill cleanup by combining electroless metal deposition with self-assembled monolayers, which has integrated the functions of oil containment booms, oil-sorption materials, oil skimmers, and water-oil separating devices. This functionally integrated device has a lower density than that of water, which leads to a potential application as oil containment booms; it can take up oil that is 3.5 times its own weight, which shows excellent oil-sorption properties, with the water-oil separating yield of the as-prepared device being up to 92%. The device has the advantages of high efficiency, capacity of antiwave, and reproducibility, which is suitable for many types of organic solvents or oils, even for emulsion of petroleum and water, and thus is a proof-of-principle idea to be applied in marine spilt oil cleanup and other water-oil separating systems.