A robust and anticorrosion non-fluorinated superhydrophobic aluminium surface for microplastic removal

Solid particulate pollutants such as microplastics constitute a global environmental issue in the 21st century. Many studies are exploring ways of removing these particles from marine environments such as seas and oceans. Here, we present a superhydrophobic surface obtained by combining anodisation and the liquid-phase deposition of lauric acid. The superhydrophobic surface was examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to elucidate its hierarchical structure and wetting state, while time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HR-XPS) were applied to identify the chemical composition of the surface, which revealed that aluminium laurate decreased the surface free energy. As microplastics are usually found in saline water, it was important to study the anticorrosion properties of the surface. Polarisation curves of the anodised surface showed excellent anticorrosion properties in 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution, which was enhanced by the superhydrophobic properties when the aluminium surface was anodised for 60 min. The functionalised surface was superhydrophobic (154°) and superoleophilic (0°). These wetting properties allowed the surface to remove microplastics from the NaCl aqueous solution with an efficiency higher than 99%. Thus, we present a novel application of a superhydrophobic and anticorrosive surface in the removal of microplastics. This has not been reported previously and provides a new scope for superwettable materials and their environmental applications.