Fabrication and Application of Superhydrophobic MultiStage Structure Separation Membranes

In this paper, the copper mesh was used as the base material, and the uniform nanowire structure was obtained by surface modification of the base material. The hydrophobic silica nanoparticles were grown in situ on the nanowires to obtain the prepared material with SiO₂ nanoparticles/Cu(OH)₂ nanowires (SiO₂NPs/CuNWs) multi-stage structure. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed that a large amount of methyl (-CH₃) was present on the surface of the prepared material after modification of methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS). Because of the existence of -CH₃, the surface energy of the prepared material was reduced, so the hydrophilic substrate surface was changed into hydrophobic surface. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the surface of the prepared material was uniformly distributed with SiO₂NPs/CuNWs multi-stage structure, which improved the surface roughness of the base material, thus, the hydrophobic property was greatly improved. The contact angle (CA) of water droplet at the interface reaches 154°, indicating that the prepared material had excellent hydrophobic properties. Based on the porosity and surface hydrophobicity of the prepared material, it can be used to separate various oil-water mixtures efficiently. (paper)