Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Ulsan, Nam-gu, Daehak-ro 93, Ulsan, 44610, Republic of Korea.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Ulsan, Nam-gu, Daehak-ro 93, Ulsan, 44610, Republic of Korea.
Chemosphere. 2022 Apr;292:133328. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.133328. Epub 2021 Dec 17.
We present a superhydrophobic material based on commercially melamine sponge (MS) with great durability, recyclability, and excellent sorption performance. The fabrication process of this sponge is facile without using toxic reagents or sophisticated equipment and therefore it is simple to scale up. The CuO layer utilized to give a rough surface of the substrate (MS) was successfully prepared in a commercial microwave to seed copper nucleuses in an alkaline medium. Stearic acid (SA) plays a role as the self-assembled monolayer on the surface of the sponge skeletons. Throughout this study, the properties of the modified sponge were fully characterized, and the changes in wettability were carefully examined. Water contact angle (WCA) measurements revealed the excellent superhydrophobicity of the material with high static WCA of 165.1° and low dynamic WCA of 8°. Furthermore, the as-prepared sponge demonstrated high efficiency in separation (over 99.0%) of different oils from water. Notably, several unique properties of as-modified material were found, consisting of ultrafast sorption capacities of up to 32-52 times of its own weight by using 80 mL of each oil, outstanding reusability with good sorption capacity even after 40 cycles. Even under various harsh environments, the novel materials proved its outstanding durability and ultrafast sorption capacity of oils. The durability, recyclability, and superhydrophobic properties of the novel superhydrophobic sponge provide it a solid basis for oil-water separation applications through an ultrafast sorption capacity of oils as well as quick recovery of the oil by easy squeezing process.
我们提出了一种基于市售三聚氰胺海绵（MS）的超疏水材料，具有出色的耐用性、可回收性和优异的吸附性能。该海绵的制造工艺简单，无需使用有毒试剂或复杂设备，因此易于扩大规模。用于赋予基底（MS）粗糙表面的氧化铜层是在商业微波中成功制备的，在碱性介质中种入铜核。硬脂酸（SA）在海绵骨架表面作为自组装单层发挥作用。在整个研究过程中，充分表征了改性海绵的性能，并仔细检查了润湿性的变化。水接触角（WCA）测量显示了材料的超疏水性，其静态 WCA 高达 165.1°，动态 WCA 低至 8°。此外，所制备的海绵在油水分离方面表现出高效率（超过 99.0%）。值得注意的是，发现了改性材料的几个独特性质，包括使用 80 毫升的每种油时，超快的吸附能力可达自身重量的 32-52 倍，即使经过 40 次循环后，仍具有出色的可重复使用性和良好的吸附能力。即使在各种恶劣环境下，新型材料也证明了其出色的耐久性和超快的吸油能力。新型超疏水海绵的耐用性、可回收性和超疏水性为其提供了坚实的基础，使其能够通过超快的吸油能力和通过简单挤压过程快速回收油来实现油水分离应用。
