In-situ assessment of the performance of oil-water separation by superhydrophobic coated cotton under extreme conditions

The present study aims to address the issue of oil in water pollution by application of a superhydrophobic cotton fabric. The superhydrophobic cotton fabric with a water contact angle of 158 ± 2°, is developed by a solution immersion technique using zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂) nanoparticles and hexadecyltrimethoxysilane. The synthesis parameters such as concentration, curing temperature, and immersion time were optimized using Box-Behnken design method. With mechanical durability, chemical resilience and thermal stability, the coated fabric can separate different oil-water mixtures with an efficiency of 99.9 %. The coated fabric can also be reused for 50 separation cycles in acidic and neutral medium. Besides, droplet dynamic behavior of oil-water mixture has also been studied to ascertain the effect of mixture impact velocities on separation performance. Additionally, coated fabric possesses self-cleaning feature, which makes it viable for muddy oil-water separation. Prepared coated fabric holds tremendous potential for industrial use and oil-water separation in extreme conditions.