Superhydrophobic mGO/PDMS hybrid coating on polyester fabric for oil/water separation

Abstract With the environment pollution deteriorating by industrial waste water and oil leak, superhydrophobic materials for oil/water separation have attracted more attentions and become a worldwide research hotspot. Herein, we propose a facile dipping-UV curing approach to fabricating superhydrophobic hybrid coating on polyester fabric for oil/water separation by utilizing (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane modified graphene oxide (mGO) and vinyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (V-PDMS). With mass ratio of mGO to V-PDMS increasing, the roughness of the fabricated mGO/PDMS hybrid coating on polyester fabric correspondingly increased and the water contact angle (WCA) reached up to 157°, demonstrating excellent water repellency. Importantly, due to the formation of crosslinked PDMS network with mGO as crosslinking points, the fabric exhibited good thermal stability and chemical resistance. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic fabric also possessed high oil/water separation efficiency at 99.8%, and still kept at 98.4% even after 15 separation cycles. Our findings stand out as a new tool to fabricate superhydrophobic materials and coatings with graphene and its derivatives for oil/water separation, showing great potential in practical applications such as oil spill accidents and industrial sewage emissions.