Properties of superhydrophobic filter media prepared by TiO2–SiO2@PDMS coating

In order to solve the problem of blocking the filter media when bag filters are used to deal with high-humidity dust, hydrophobic surface-modified filter media were prepared. Here we constructed a multi-layer rough structure using TiO2 and SiO2, with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) subsequently deposited to reduce its surface energy to prepare stable and robust TiO2–SiO2@PDMS modified superhydrophobic filter media. Through modification of the filter media, its surface was changed from superhydrophilic to superhydrophobic, and the water contact angle reached 158°. For the particles with 0.3 μm, the filtration efficiency and quality factor of the modified filter media are higher than those of the unmodified filter media at a flow velocity of 0.043–0.127 m/s, which improves the filtration performance of the filter media. In addition, the modified filter media has strong durability in harsh environmental conditions (such as mechanical wear, strong acid or alkali solution), and has excellent self-cleaning performance. Therefore, such superhydrophobic filter media have great potential for the application of bag filters in various industrial production processes. Graphical abstract