Highly reusable Cu2O/PP fibrous membranes for oil/water separation

In this work, we reported a cuprous oxide/polypropylene (Cu2O/PP) fibrous membrane with superhydrophobic (WCA = 151.8°±2.1°) and superlipophilic (OCA = 0°) for highly efficient oil/water separation through melt-electrospinning and magnetron sputtering, respectively. The surface morphology, microstructure, and wettability of the modified membrane were characterized by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and contact angle goniometer, respectively. It was demonstrated that the Cu2O/PP fibrous membranes showed superhydrophobic and superlipophilic, attributing to its higher roughness and lower surface energy after the deposition of Cu2O nanoparticles. For separation of oil/water emulsion, the Cu2O/PP fibrous membranes exhibited high separation efficiency (above 92% for various oil/water emulsion; 94.14% for n-hexane/water mixture), good stability and remarkable recyclability (92.52% for n-hexane/water mixture after 30 cycles), attributing to an outstanding adhesion of Cu2O nanoparticles to fibrous membrane. This work could provide a simple and efficient method to fabricate highly efficient fibrous membranes in industrial oil-contaminated water treatment and marine spilt-oil cleanup.