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Amphibious superamphiphilic fabrics with self-healing underwater superoleophilicity
journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-01, 00:00 authored by S Fu, Hua Zhou, Hong Wang, Haitao Niu, W Yang, Hao Shao, Tong LinMost of the superamphiphilic surfaces reported so far show an oleophobic feature in underwater environments because once they are wetted with water their wettability is governed by the water layer adsorbed on the surface. In contrast, underwater oleophilic surfaces often show superhydrophobicity-oleophilicity in a dry state in air. A challenge remains in developing a superamphiphilic surface that shows both superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophilicity (i.e. underwater superamphiphilicity). Herein, we demonstrate a novel strategy to prepare a surface that simultaneously possesses superamphiphilicity in air and underwater environments (also referred to as “amphibious superamphiphilicity” in this paper). A single-step wet-chemical coating method was employed to apply a crosslinkable polymer material, which consists of hydrophilic and oleophilic functional groups, onto a fabric substrate. The fabric after coating treatment exhibited amphibious superamphiphilicity with a contact angle of 0° for water and oils. In the dry state, it took less than 1 second for water and oil fluids of surface tension in the range of 18.4-50.8 mN m −1 to spread completely on the surface. In water, although the fabric was quickly wetted, it still allowed oils to spread completely into the wetted fabric matrix in less than 1 minute. More interestingly, the underwater superoleophilicity is self-healable against chemical damage. We further showed that such amphibious superamphiphilicity has great potential for recovery of oil from water. No matter whether the fabric was in a dry or pre-wetted state, it showed a similar oil absorption capability. The high resilience against moisture environments made oil recovery very stable. In addition, the coating is durable enough against various types of harsh damage. Such unusual superamphiphilicity may offer novel properties and applications in diverse fields.
History
Journal
Materials HorizonsVolume
6Issue
1Pagination
122 - 129Publisher
Royal Society of ChemistryLocation
London, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
2051-6347eISSN
2051-6355Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2019, The Royal Society of ChemistryUsage metrics
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