Facile Approach to Fabricate a High-Performance Superhydrophobic Mesh

When superhydrophobic meshes are used for oil/water separation, high flux and high intrusion pressure are usually compromised. Herein, a high-performance superhydrophobic stainless steel mesh membrane with a hairy-like poly(divinylbenzene) (PDVB) coating is fabricated by precipitated cationic polymerization. The synthesis is facile, which is completed in one step at ambient temperature within a short time, i.e., less than 90 s. The unique hair-like microstructure of PDVB is responsible for the superhydrophobic performance with less blockage for the pores. A higher flux for oil is achieved while keeping a high intrusion pressure. Especially, the ellipsoidal pore texture with two sharp tips can give additional high intrusion pressure. In the case of 2800 mesh, the superhydrophobic mesh displays an unprecedentedly high value of up to 22 kPa while maintaining a high flux of 2.0 × 10⁴ L·m^-2·h^-1. The high intrusion pressure enables further increment of flux to 4.2 × 10⁴ L·m^-2·h^-1 under a reduced pressure at a higher loading. The current high-performance superhydrophobic mesh realizes higher efficiency in separating oil/water mixtures, which is promising for practical applications, for example, in industrial extraction.