Wettable copper hydroxide cotton fabric for oil-water separation made by surface micro-dissolution

Cotton textiles with special surface wettability, high adsorption capacity and low cost have a promising future for oily wastewater purification. A facile and efficient surface microdissolution technology was used to generate micro-nanostructure copper hydroxide on the surface of cotton fabric, and super-hydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic functional textiles were prepared. The underwater contact angle of the developed Cu(OH)2@Cotton Fabric is more than 152.9°. Driven by gravity, the oil/water mixture can be successfully separated by CH@CF with high flux of 2043–3843 L/m2h and high separation efficiency of 98.75%. After soaking in the harsh environment (high alkali and salt solution) for 24 h, CH@CF still keep good oil-water separation ability. The prepared fabric is efficient in the separation of water-in-oil emulsion driven by a constant current pump (200 mL/min) and the efficiency is greater than 99.1%. After repeated separation experiments for 25 times, the separation efficiency of the CH@CF for oil-water mixture keep more than 98.93%. This method can produce fabrics made of low-cost and available materials, expected to be a potential and feasible and efficient solution for oily wastewater purification, which has a promising future for oil/water separation.