Fabrication Of Superhydrophobic Cu Mesh And Research On Oil-water Separation Performance

Water and oil are essential resources in people’s daily life, whose quality greatlyinfluences every aspect of people’s life and production. The incorporation of oil in waterwill decrease the quality of water and even cause serious pollution. As well, theincorporation of water in oil will badly influence the quality and usage efficiency of oil.Therefore, the research on separation of water and oil has important significance onimproving the quality of water and oil. Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic strainer isa newly and efficient tool for separation of water and oil from oil-water mixture on thebasis of the difference of wettability when water and oil are on the surface of theretainer. The thesis is to fabricate a superhydrophobic and superoleophilic Cu meshsurface in three methods on the basic materials of the200Cu meshes, and to design anoil-water separation device in order to give a research on the oil-water separationefficiency. The main research contents and results are as following:1. The copper mesh was heated at400°C to prepare a copper oxide surface.Afterward, the mesh was immersed into an ethanol solution of0.5M palmitic acid forabout30minutes. Get with a superhydrophobic and superoleophilic CuO mesh,exhibiting a water contact angle and sliding angle is166.3°and2.7°respectively, and atoluene contact angle is about0°. SEM, XRD, FTIR and XPS study results show thatthe rough surface of the copper oxide with micro-nano structure with palmitic acid inthe chemical reaction, generate the low surface energy material palmitic acid copper,make it has the super hydrophobic surface, and shows good corrosion resistance andthermal stability.2. The superhydrophobic and superoleophilic Cu mesh was successful obtained bymodifying with1-dodecanethiol for20minutes, which with a water contact angle of162.1°and a sliding angle of2°, as well as a toluene contact angle of about0°. SEMshowed that the surface microscopic morphology of Cu mesh surface has no changedafter modified with1-dodecanethiol. XPS indicated that1-dodecanethiol and coppersurface self-assembly reaction happened. Meanwhile, the thermal stability and corrosionresistance in HCl, NaOH and NaCl solution of the superhydrophobic Cu mesh werestudied.3. A superhydrophobic and superoleophilic Cu2O mesh was fabricated by0.01MCuSO4solution of60min produce Cu2O layer on Cu mesh surface without using low surface energy materials. Its contact angle with water at159.6°, sliding angle is3.8°,and the contact angle of toluene is about0°. SEM, XRD and XPS studies have shownthat the Cu2O crystal particles generated evenly distribution, high purity, and strongbonding force with substrate. Furthermore, it possesses good thermal stability in0~200℃, and some corrosion resistance in NaCl solution.4. With the application of designed oil-water separation device, we launched outinto several oil-water separation tests on different oil-water mixtures such as toluene,gasoline, diesel oil, and kerosene. The results of the tests embodies that the separationefficiency of the three superhydrophobic cooper meshes is over90%and all those canbe reused over20times. In addition, the surfaces of the three strainers can resist thewater pressure of over14cm.