Novel Superhydrophobic Surface Cu2O Nanocubes with Fluorine-free Modifier to Achieve Efficient and Repeatable Heavy Oil-water Separation

The construction of superhydrophobic surface roughness is mostly based on nanorods, nanowires, nanotubes, etc. In this work, we report a novel Cu2O nanocube (NC) superhydrophobic surface based on copper mesh, and the prepared copper mesh can achieve a separation efficiency of more than 99.5% after ten separation cycles. This convenient technology is expected to provide new ideas for future oil-water separation due to the simple preparation process, green environment, and low cost, and also presents a novel way of constructing superhydrophobic surface roughness unlike previous reports. In this work, a novel superhydrophobic surface based on the roughness of Cu2O nanocubes was successfully fabricated for efficient separation of heavy oil/water mixtures. This convenient technique is expected to provide new ideas for future oil-water separation, and also propose a new way for the construction of superhydrophobic surface roughness that is different from previous ones.