Preparation of Durable Self-Healing Cotton Fabric Superhydrophobic Materials Using Etching@Immersion Method for Oil Spill Treatment

Porous superhydrophobic materials hold significant potential for oil-water separation. Current research mainly focuses on metal-based nets and sponges, but they suffer from issues such as fragile coatings, complex preparation processes, lack of environmental friendliness, and easy aging. To address these shortcomings, this study innovatively adopts an etching@immersion method, utilizing the "bridging" effect of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to firmly coat hydrophobically modified TiO₂ particles onto cotton fiber surfaces, producing SA-TiO₂/PDMS/cotton superhydrophobic materials. These materials exhibit strong repellence to common contaminants and good durability against strong acids, simulated seawater, and various organic solvents. The sandpaper abrasion distance reaches 2080 cm, while the contact angle remains above 150°. Damaged surfaces can achieve nine cycles of wear-superhydrophobic self-healing after heating treatment. Additionally, this material and the oil spill adsorption device designed using it demonstrate excellent separation and adsorption performance, with an oil flux that is several dozen times higher than similar studies. After 20 cycles of separation and adsorption, its separation and adsorption efficiency remain at 99.5% and 96.98%, respectively. This achievement provides a feasible solution for the development of efficient and durable oil spill treatment materials.