Wettability control and oil/water separation performance of3D‐printed porous materials

Abstract In this paper, polylactic acid porous materials were prepared by a fused deposition modeling 3D printing method. Then, a combination of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) solution etching containing hydrophobic nano‐silica (HN‐SiO 2 ) and low surface energy fluorosilane modification was used to obtain the samples with different wettability. The effect of immersion time in MEK solution and HN‐SiO 2 content on the wettability of porous samples was investigated. Finally, the sample with the highest contact angle and extremely low sliding angle was selected for the oil/water separation test. The separation efficiency of oil/water separators with hole side lengths of 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 for five different oil/water mixtures was investigated. The results show that the oil/water separator with a hole side length of 1.0 mm has a better primary separation effect. With the increase of the hole size of the oil–water separator, the effect of multiple separations is unfavorable. The oil/water separator with hole side length of 0.8 mm has repeatable oil/water separation performance many times. This research provides a new idea for the application of the oil/water separator with a hole side length greater than 0.6 mm printed by an ordinary, inexpensive, low‐precision fusion 3D printer.