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Simple and eco-friendly fabrication of superhydrophobic textile for oil/water

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Simple and eco-friendly fabrication of

superhydrophobic textile for oil/water separation

Jintao Wang & Guihong Geng

To cite this article: Jintao Wang & Guihong Geng (2016) Simple and eco-friendly fabrication
of superhydrophobic textile for oil/water separation, Environmental Technology, 37:13,
1591-1596, DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2015.1122094

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 ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY, 2016
VOL. 37, NO. 13, 1591–1596
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2015.1122094

Simple and eco-friendly fabrication of superhydrophobic textile for oil/water

separation
Jintao Wang and Guihong Geng
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beifang University of Nationalities, Yinchuan, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic material was successfully prepared by the coating of Received 17 April 2015
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) onto the surface of cotton textile and subsequent hydrophobic Accepted 14 November 2015
modification. The formation of PVA with rough structure and hydrophobicity was confirmed with
KEYWORDS
scanning electron microscopy and investigation of the wetting behavior of water on the textile. Textiles; polyvinyl alcohol;
The coated textile is water repellant and can be used as a material for separating various oil/ coatings; oil/water
water mixture with a high separation efficiency up to 91%. Due to its simple fabrication process, separation; recyclability
low cost, excellent recyclability and durability, and high separation efficiency, the as-prepared
textile can be considered as promising material for practical oil/water separation.
Downloaded by [Lanzhou University] at 00:37 05 May 2016

Introduction
With the increase in oily wastewater and frequent oil spill
accidents from many occasions such as petroleum
mining, oil deliveries, oil refining, petrochemical oper-
ation, the efficient oil/water separation has become a
long-term and demanding task. Although considerable
efforts have been made to develop effective approaches
for separating oil/water mixture, the environmental
friendly materials that can be fabricated via simple
method is still an urgent issue.[1–4] Usually, the materials
for the separation of oil/water mixture are required to
possess hydrophobicity.[5] Such special surface wettabil-
ity can be achieved by hierarchical micro- and nano-
structures of surface and low surface energy.[6] By appro-
priate structure design, the hydrophilic surface can be
completely transformed into superhydrophobic surface,
which make the materials possible to be used in the
field of oil spill cleanup.
Up to now, a large amount of superhydrophobic
materials for separating oil/water mixture have been pre-
pared. These materials include superhydrophobic kapok
fiber made by sol–gel method,[7] superhydrophobic
carbon nanofibers films prepared by electrospinning
method,[8] superhydrophobic oil containment boom
fabricated by electrodepositing method,[9] superhydro-
phobic stainless steel mesh prepared by chemical
vapor deposition method,[10] superhydrophobic
filtration fabric formed via microphase separation of
poly(dimethyl siloxanes),[11] and superhydrophobic
metallic foam prepared by acid etching method[12].
These materials demonstrate excellent affinity to oil
and water repellency in oil/water surroundings, and
accordingly, they can be applied in the separation of
spilled oil. Despite this, there are still many limitations
for fabricating such functional materials on a large
scale, such as complicated fabrication procedures,
expensive raw materials and equipment, and long fabri-
cation time. Therefore, there is still an urgent demand to
develop inexpensive and efficient oil/water separation
materials that can be easily fabricated on a large scale.
In this case, the utilization of materials derived from
renewable resources exhibits great application potential
due to their availability of materials, low cost, and high
biodegradability.
The textiles have been receiving new attention in the
field of separating oil/water mixtures due to their excel-
lent properties such as high flexibility and low cost. Since
the initial report of superhydrophobic textiles for oil/
water separation and selective oil absorption from
water,[13] the study on superhydrophobic textiles for
separating oil/water mixture has attracted wide atten-
tion, and the encouraging results have been obtained.
For instance, Zhou et al. prepared superhydrophobic
cotton fabric by introducing polyaniline and fluorinated
alkyl silane on the fabric surface via a facile vapor
phase deposition process, and the resulting fabric
showed high separation efficiency in the separation of
oil/water mixture.[14] Wu et al. fabricated durable super-
hydrophobic textiles by dip coating in a nanocomposite
solution of fluoro-free organosilanes, which can

CONTACT Jintao Wang wjt1986120@163.com

© 2015 Taylor & Francis
 1592 J. WANG AND G. GENG
efficiently separate oil/water mixture.[15] These results
pave the way for developing new functionalized textiles
for treating oily wastewater.
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with abundant hydroxyl groups
can firmly adhere to the fabric surface via hydrogen bond
interactions.[16] In this work, the study aims to explore a
facile, simple, and eco-friendly approach to fabricate
superhydrophobic cotton textile via simple immersion
of pristine textile in PVA solution and the subsequent
hydrophobic modification. Due to excellent superhydro-
phobicity and superoleophilicity, the textile is used to
the oil/water separation. The as-prepared textile demon-
strates high separation efficiency and good recyclability
as well as mechanical durability. Although some investi-
gations about superhydrophobic textiles have been
carried out, there is little information known about the
use of PVA-coated cotton textile for oil/water separation.
Therefore, the findings will provide a novel and facile
Downloaded by [Lanzhou University] at 00:37 05 May 2016
approach for the preparation of superhydrophobic
materials for the separation of oil/water mixture.
Materials and methods
Materials
Cotton textile was purchased from a market in Yinchuan,
China. Toluene, n-hexane, chloroform, gasoline, kero-
sene, and diesel were received from Ningxia Yaoyi
Chemical Reagent Co. Ltd., China. Dodecyltrimethoxysi-
lane (DTMS, chemically pure) was provided by Nanjin
Figure 1. (a) Schematic representation of fabricating superhy-
drophobic textile; (b) hydrophobic property of textile before
and after the coating PVA.
Chengong Organosilicon Co. Ltd., China. PVA (analytical
grade) was supplied by Ningxia Yaoyi Chemical
Reagent Co. Ltd., China.
Preparation of superhydrophobic cotton textile
In the typical process, 4 g of PVA was completely dis-
solved in 200 mL of distilled water via stirring at 90°C
for 2 h. Then, the cotton textile was immersed into the
aqueous solution of PVA for 15 min, and soon afterwards,
the immersed textile was transferred into 100 mL of
ethanol solution of DTMS (wt. 1.5%) to modify at room
temperature for 2 h. Finally, the samples were rinsed
three times with ethanol and dried in an oven at 80°C.
Oil/water separation test
The as-prepared textile was used for the evaluation of oil/
water separation. The oil separation efficiency was deter-
mined by volume measurements. A certain amount of oil
(m) was added into distilled water in a beaker and vigor-
ously stirred for 10 min. Afterwards, the as-prepared
textile was placed on top of the beaker, the oil/water
mixture was poured onto the surface of the textile, and
then oil will penetrate the pore of textile into the
beaker. The volume of captured oil (m1) was measured.
The oil separation efficiency of the superhydrophobic
textile was calculated by the formula Ks = m1/m × 100%.
After the oil/water separation, the textile was washed
with ethanol and dried in an oven at 80°C , and the resul-
tant textile was used for the recycled separation tests.
Characterizations studs
The micrographs of samples were examined using scan-
ning electron microscopy (SEM) (JSM–5600LV, JEOL).
Before SEM observation, all samples were fixed on alumi-
num stud and coated with gold. The surface wettability
of water on the surface of cotton textile was observed
with a digital SLR camera after the water was dripped
on the surface of textile from a syringe (1 mL). Contact
angle measurements were carried out using a Krüss
DSA 100 (Krüss Company, Ltd., Germany) apparatus at
ambient temperature, and the volumes of probing
liquids in the measurements were approximately 5 μL.
Results and discussion
Formation of superhydrophobic cotton textile and
morphology analyses
The fabrication process of superhydrophobic cotton
textile is displayed in Figure 1(a). A cleaned cotton

textile was immersed into the aqueous solution of PVA,
then the treated textile was modified in DTMS solution,
and finally the PVA-coated textile was obtained. As illus-
trated in Figure 1(b), the surface of pristine textile is easy
to be wetted by the water droplet so that no water contact
angle is found. The textile surface that is subjected to the
coating cannot be wetted by the water droplet, and a
nearly spherical water droplet steadily stays on the
textile surface with 151° of water contact angle. This
superhydrophobicity is mainly attributed to rough PVA
coating and low surface energy derived from DTMS,
which makes the water droplets mainly in contact with
the air trapped into the interspaces of superhydrophobic
textile. The SEM images of pristine and superhydrophobic
cotton textile are shown in Figure 2. It can be observed
that pristine textile shows the woven structure with
some protruding fibers as displayed in Figure 2(a), and
the intrinsic micro-roughness of the textile also facilitates
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the fabrication of PVA coating on the surface. After the
coating, the texture structure of pristine textile disap-
pears, and the surface is completely covered by PVA
coating with rough structure (Figure 2(b)). Such mor-
phology of PVA produces a large number of interspaces
with micro- and nano-structure, resulting in the superhy-
drophobicity of the textile.
Separation of oil/water mixture
The as-prepared textile exhibits excellent superhydro-
phobicity, which makes it promising as oil/water separ-
ation material. The separation capability of as-prepared
textile for different oil/water mixtures is evaluated.
Figure 2. The morphology of (a) pristine and (b) superhydropho-
bic textile.
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 1593
When the oil (n-hexane, toluene, chloroform, gasoline,
kerosene, and diesel)/water mixture was poured onto
surface of superhydrophobic textile, the oil can quickly
penetrate through the textile pores and then drop into
the receiving container below, leaving a large amount
of water on the textile surface (Figure 3(a)). The separation
efficiency of superhydrophobic textile for n-hexane/
water, toluene/water, chloroform/water, gasoline/water,
kerosene/water, and diesel/water mixture is 94%, 95%,
92%, 91%, 92.4%, and 92.4%, respectively (Figure 3(b)).
Therefore, the as-prepared textile can be used to separate
oil/water mixtures. Compared with other recently
reported materials for the separation of oil and water,
[17–19] the findings from this study are encouraging,
owing to eminent separation capability, low cost, simple
preparation procedure, and excellent biodegradability
of the as-prepared textile. Although some meshes with
superhydrophobicity have been prepared, showing
superior separation property for various oils from water,
[20–24] the high cost and complicated preparation pro-
cedure limit their wide application. In addition, many
polymer-coated textiles have also been prepared in
recent years. Zhang et al. developed SiO2/polystyrene
(PS)-nanocomposite-coated fabric and filter paper by a
dipping process, and the fabric exhibited superhydropho-
bicity and superoleophilicity.[25] However, preparing
SiO2 nanoparticles also increased the fabrication com-
plexity of the product. Superhydrophobic composite
coating containing PS and modified-ZnO was also fabri-
cated onto the cotton textiles surface by a simple
Figure 3. (a) Process of oil/water separation by superhydropho-
bic textile; (b) the separation efficiency of superhydrophobic
textile for different oils.
 1594 J. WANG AND G. GENG

Figure 4. (a) Change in separation efficiency and water contact angle with the number of recycling cycles; (b) the SEM image of the
coated textile after 10 cycles of separation.

method, and the superhydrophobic textiles displayed an slightly during the whole cycles, but the decrease rate
Downloaded by [Lanzhou University] at 00:37 05 May 2016

excellent property in oil/water separation.[26] Yet, the
synthesis and modification of ZnO particles make the
preparation process of the fabric complex. More impor-
tantly, in the fabrication process of this kind of hydro-
phobic-polymer-coated textiles,[25–28] the massive use
of toxic solvent not only increases the preparation cost,
but also makes the preparation process become non-
environmentally friendly. Hence, the as-prepared textile
may offer an opportunity for alleviating the global scale
of serious water pollution resulting from oil spills and
industrial organic pollutants.
Recyclability and durability of superhydrophobic
textile
The recyclability of the superhydrophobic textile is eval-
uated as shown in Figure 4. It can be found that the sep-
aration efficiency for toluene/water mixture decreases
does not exceed 5% of the initial separation efficiency
after 10 cycles of separation. Moreover, there is no sig-
nificant loss in the wettability after the 10 cycles of sep-
aration, and the water contact angle can reach 136° after
the last separation, suggesting good recyclability of the
as-prepared textile. The SEM image of the coated
textile after 10 cycles of separation indicates that the
micro- and nano-structure was barely destroyed in the
limited use. It should be noted that the decrease in the
water contact angle may be attributed to the subtle
damage of PVA coating in drying process after every
cycle of separation.
The efficient oil/water separation capability of super-
hydrophobic materials is mainly attributed to the super-
hydrophobic coatings, but most of the reported
superhydrophobic coatings are chemically unstable.
After the uses of several cycles, superhydrophobic
materials will show a significant decrease in water

Figure 5. Change of water contact angles and separation efficiency (for toluene/water mixture) of superhydrophobic textile after being
exposed to (a) acidic (pH = 1) and (b) alkaline (pH = 13) solutions for different time.

contact angle. However, excellent chemical stability of
superhydrophobic materials is essential for their practi-
cal application in oil/water separation. Therefore, the
chemical durability of PVA-coated textile is investigated
via measuring the variation of water contact angle after
immersing the textile into acidic and alkali solutions. As
shown in Figure 5(a), the water contact angle is 149°,
150°, 143°, 140°, 135°, and 132° after immersing the
coated textile into acidic solution for 1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12
h, 18 h, and 24 h, respectively, and there is a small
decrease in the separation efficiency for toluene/water
mixtures. For alkali-immersed textiles, the similar
varying tendency in water contact angle (>130°) and
separation efficiency (>88.3%) can be observed (Figure
5(b)). This result indicates that the PVA-coated textile
still retain excellent hydrophobicity after being
immersed in corrosive solutions, which is comparable
with those previously reported superhydrophobic
Downloaded by [Lanzhou University] at 00:37 05 May 2016
textile.[25–27] Therefore, because of simple and eco-
friendly fabrication process, excellent recyclability, and
good chemical durability, the PVA-coated textile is a
promising material for separating organic pollutants
and oils from corrosive water.
Conclusions
A simple, inexpensive, and environmental friendly
method was developed to fabricate superhydrophobic
cotton textile. After the coating of PVA onto cotton
textile and the hydrophobic modification, the existence
of uniform micro- and nano-scale roughness with low
surface energy imparts the textile with outstanding super-
hydrophobicity with 151° of water contact angle. The as-
prepared textile can effectively separate oil/water mix-
tures with high separation efficiency up to 91%. Further-
more, the resulting textile also exhibits excellent
recyclability and durability. Thus, the as-prepared textile
with facile and inexpensive fabrication process may find
practical applications in the field of oil–water separation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This research was supported by the Ningxia Natural Science
Foundation [NZ. 15099], the Key Scientific Research Project of
Beifang University of Nationalities in 2015 [No. 2015KJ27], the
Preliminary Cultivation Project of National Natural Science
Foundation of China for Beifang University of Nationalities
[No. 2014QZP09], and the Key Laboratory Project of ‘Powder
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY 1595
Materials and Special Ceramics’ Co-founded by Ningxia Pro-
vince and State Ethnic Affairs Commission [No. 1410].
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