A superhydrophobic MOF-based cotton fabric with self-cleaning and self-healing properties for rapid oil-water separation

Superhydrophobic cotton fabrics have gradually been applied to the treatment of oily wastewater over the past few years. However, it is still a huge challenge to fabricate a stable, durable and eco-friendly superhydrophobic cotton fabric. In this work, a superhydrophobic cotton fabric (PDMS/MIL-100@CF-COOH) with self-cleaning and hydrophobic self-healing properties was prepared for rapid oil-water separation by in-situ anchoring of MOFs on carboxylated cotton fabric (CF-COOH) and coating treatment with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Experiment results found that PDMS/MIL-100@CF-COOH exhibited superior superhydrophobicity with the WCA of 162.7°, which could efficiently separate various oil-water mixtures with excellent separation efficiency (≥99.4 %) and ultra-high permeate flux (∼16274 L∙m −2 ∙h −1 ). More importantly, the modified fabric exhibited outstanding self-cleaning, anti-fouling and self-repairing performances, enabling the restoration of superhydrophobicity through a simple heat treatment. Meanwhile, it also possessed excellent robustness and durability, and maintained stable hydrophobic performance (WCA>150°) in harsh conditions (acid, alkali, salt, ultrasound, peeling, abrasion). This work offers a valuable research direction for the high-efficiency and durable oil-water separation materials. • A robust and durable MOF-based superhydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated. • The modified cotton fabric enables rapid separation of oil-water mixtures solely by gravity. • Oil-water separation efficiency exceeds 99.4 % and permeate flux reaches 16274 L∙m −2 ∙h −1 . • It possesses outstanding self-cleaning and hydrophobic self-healing performances.