Superhydrophobic cotton fabric coated with tannic acid/polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane for highly effective oil/water separation

Abstract Superhydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated by grafting aminopropyllsobutyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (NH2-POSS) at room temperature using a tannic acid inspired surface modification method. The impact of the NH2-POSS concentration on the hydrophobicity of the fabric was investigated. The obtained superhydrophobic fabric exhibited an outstanding self-cleaning ability and excellent durability by resisting corrosive liquids, sandpaper abrasion for15 cycles, adhesive tape peeling for 50 cycles, ultrasonic treatment for 60 min, and high temperature of 200 °C. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic fabric could be utilized as a promising filter screen for separating oils from water with ultrahigh flux (∼19,600 L m−2 h−1) and separation efficiency (to 99.91%) even after 30 separation cycles. This method is simple, environmentally friendly, economical and practical. It can be used to produce superhydrophobic material on a large scale, which indicates its great potential in the field of oil-water separation.