Fabrication of superhydrophobic CuO-ZnO nanostructured films on the stainless steel meshes for oil-water separation

Abstract

In the recent years, based on the developments of fabricating superhydrophobic/superoleophobic nanostructured surfaces, using theses materials for oil-water liquid phases separation have been extensively studied. Superhydrophobic CuO-ZnO hybrid nanostructured films were prepared on the stinless steel meshes using solution immersion method. The SEM and FTIR analyses were employed to characterize the morphological structures and chemical composition of the final samples. Results showed that the water contac anngle of the prepared sample was 154.6°± 3° which exhibited excellent superhydrophobic properties. Finally, these surfaces were used to separate chloroform-water mixture (50/50 %v). Resulted surface showed high oil-water phases separation efficiency (higher than 90%).

Keywords

• CuO-ZnO hybrid nanostructured films
• solution immersion method
• separation efficiency