Superhydrophobic fibers with strong adhesion to water for oil/water separation

• Low-cost silica-based fibers. • Composite fibers have strong adhesion to water. • Superhydrophobicity and excellent oil/water separation performance. • Composite fibers have excellent stability and recyclability. In recent years, frequent oil spills and the discharge of industrial organic pollutants have caused long-term damage to the ecological environment and human safety. It is still a challenge to develop low-cost, stable, and reusable materials for highly efficient oil/water separation. Herein, the steady, recyclable and economical silica-based fibers were fabricated via self-assembly method (based on electrostatic attraction) and hydrophobic modification, which possess superhydrophobicity and petal effect. The composite fibers had a high water contact angle of approximately 160 ° and high adhesion to water which can be utilized to adhere droplets without loss. The composite fibers can not only adsorb but also filter oil from water environment, and the separation efficiency reached up to 99.2% even after 10 cycles of dichloromethane/water separation. The fibers have great application potential in oil spill adsorption and oil/water separation.