Facile preparation of high density polyethylene superhydrophobic/superoleophilic coatings on glass, copper and polyurethane sponge for self-cleaning, corrosion resistance and efficient oil/water separation

Yuanyuan Cheng; Bei Wu; Xiaofan Ma; Shixiang Lu; Wenguo Xu; Sabine Szunerits; Rabah Boukherroub

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.075

Facile preparation of high density polyethylene superhydrophobic/superoleophilic coatings on glass, copper and polyurethane sponge for self-cleaning, corrosion resistance and efficient oil/water separation

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2018 Sep 1:525:76-85. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.075. Epub 2018 Apr 18.

Authors

Yuanyuan Cheng¹, Bei Wu², Xiaofan Ma², Shixiang Lu², Wenguo Xu², Sabine Szunerits³, Rabah Boukherroub⁴

Affiliations

¹ Univ. Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, ISEN, Univ. Valenciennes, UMR 8520 - IEMN, F-59000 Lille, France; School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, PR China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, PR China.
³ Univ. Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, ISEN, Univ. Valenciennes, UMR 8520 - IEMN, F-59000 Lille, France.
⁴ Univ. Lille, CNRS, Centrale Lille, ISEN, Univ. Valenciennes, UMR 8520 - IEMN, F-59000 Lille, France. Electronic address: rabah.boukherroub@iemn.univ-lille1.fr.

PMID: 29684733
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2018.04.075

Abstract

Inspired by the lotus effect and water-repellent properties of water striders' legs, superhydrophobic surfaces have been intensively investigated from both fundamental and applied perspectives for daily and industrial applications. Various techniques are available for the fabrication of artificial superoleophilic/superhydrophobic (SS). However, most of these techniques are tedious and often require hazardous or expensive equipment, which hampers their implementation for practical applications. In the present work, we used a versatile and straightforward technique based on polymer drop-casting for the preparation SS materials that can be implemented on any substrate. High density polyethylene (HDPE) SS coatings were prepared on different substrates (glass, copper mesh and polyurethane (PU) sponge) by drop casting the parent polymer xylene-ethanol solution at room temperature. All the substrates exhibited a superhydrophobic behavior with a water contact angle (WCA) greater than 150°. Furthermore, the corrosion resistance, stability, self-cleaning property, and water/oil separation of the developed materials were also assessed. While copper mesh and PU sponge exhibited good ability for oil and organic solvents separation from water, the HDPE-functionalized PU sponge displayed good adsorption capacity, 32-90 times the weight of adsorbed substance vs. the weight of adsorbent.

Keywords: Copper; Corrosion resistance; High density polyethylene (HDPE); Self-cleaning; Sponge; Superhydrophobicity; Superoleophilicity; Water/oil separation.