Superhydrophobic Shish-kebab Membrane with Self-Cleaning\nand Oil/Water Separation Properties

Abstract

In\nnature, the water-repellent surface of a superhydrophobic material\nsuch as lotus has the micro/nano hierarchical structure, while shish-kebab,\nwhich is one of the most fascinating superstructure crystals in polymer\nscience, also exhibits micro/nano hierarchical structure. Accordingly,\nit remains an idea of whether this structure can be used as the superhydrophobic\nmaterials. In this work, a modified flow-induced crystallization method\nwas employed to fabricate a pure shish-kebab membrane, whose wetting\nbehavior and other related performances were comprehensively studied.\nThe membrane surface displays superhydrophobic characteristic with\na static water contact angle of 161° and sliding angle of 3°.\nMore importantly, the superhydrophobic membrane not only is of low\nadhesive, anti-impact, and self-cleaning performance, but also presents\noil/water separation capacity, high absorption capacity with porosity\n(67–83%), and recyclability for organic liquids. This work\nproposed a new approach from the viewpoint of shish-kebab aggregation\nto construct a micro/nano structure in the polymer membrane with superhydrophobicity\nand other functional properties.