Hybrid nano-interfacial engineering of special-wettable surfaces for advanced oil/water separation: Multifunctional strategies and future directions

The increasing demand for efficient and sustainable oil/water separation technologies has driven significant research into advanced materials capable of addressing environmental and industrial challenges. Hybrid nanostructures have emerged as a transformative solution, offering exceptional performance by synergistically combining diverse materials to create tailored interfaces with specialized wettability. These hybrid systems not only enhance oil/water separation but also provide multifunctional benefits such as self-cleaning, dye removal, anti-fouling, and antibacterial properties. This review highlights the latest advancements in hybrid nano-architectures, focusing on their design principles, fabrication techniques, and multifunctional applications. A broad range of nanomaterials, including metal nanoparticles, metal-oxide-based nanomaterials, silica-based nanomaterials, carbon-based nanomaterials, polymeric materials, porous frameworks-based materials including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), at last MXene-based materials, are explored for their role in creating super-wettable surfaces optimized for oil/water separation. These materials possess unique properties such as high surface area, tunable wettability, and enhanced stability, all crucial for improving separation efficiency. The review emphasizes the importance of material chemistry and structural design in achieving higher separation efficiency, durability, and scalability. It also discusses innovative fabrication strategies, performance benchmarks, and real-world applications. Building on individual materials, hybrid nanostructures combine the strengths of different components to create interfaces with enhanced functionalities. Systems like metal-metal oxide composites, carbon-metal hybrids, polymer-inorganic hybrids, and MXene-based heterostructures exhibit synergistic effects that significantly outperform single-material systems. In addition to superior oil/water separation, these hybrids offer added capabilities such as self-cleaning, anti-fouling, dye removal, and antibacterial properties. By focusing on the transformative potential of these materials, this review highlights their critical role in revolutionizing oil/water separation technologies and catalyzing interdisciplinary innovations in multifunctional materials. • Hybrid nanostructures enhance multifunctionality for advanced oil/water separation. • Synergistic effects in hybrid nano-engineering improve separation efficiency and durability. • Fundamentals of surface wettability: surface energy and roughness effects. • Mechanisms and design principles of super-wetting surfaces equipped with hybrid nanostructures are reviewed. • Multifunctional hybrid materials hold promise for next-generation water treatment applications.