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In recent years, with the continuous discharge of wastewater, which has caused serious environmental pollution, it is a task to separate oil or water from wastewater. Therefore, an efficient and low‐cost oil–water separation method is needed to separate the oil–water mixture. Here, a superhydrophobic/superoleophilic low density polyethylene/styrene‐butadiene rubber (LDPE/SBR) thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) film (oil contact angle of 0° and water contact angle of 161.1° ± 1.7°) is prepared using an etched aluminum foil as a template and applied to a laboratory‐assembled oil–water separation device, which is a new method for oil–water separation via a pressure response valve. The LDPE/SBR TPV film is rolled up and stuffed into the through‐valve, and the gap between the films is used as the pressure response channel for oil and water separation, thus achieving oil and water separation. When the film gap is 25 or 50 µm, the separation efficiency of TPV film is greater than 99% with the variation of external pumping force, indicating that this method can achieve complete oil–water separation under a suitable external pumping force. This functional TPV film has good recyclability, environmental stability, chemical stability, mechanical durability, as well as thermal stability, which makes it have great application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross‐linking microstructure formed by the metal‐coordination bonds provides excellent properties for rubber materials. Copper sulfate (CuSO4) and tetramethylthiuram monosulfide (TMTM) are successfully compounded with nitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR) to fabricate vulcanizates by the coordination cross‐linking. The curing characteristics, mobility of macromolecular segment, mechanical properties, morphology analysis, swelling properties, and dynamic features under cyclic compression of the vulcanizates are investigated systematically. The results indicate that the microstructure of 3D cross‐linking is held together by the metal‐coordination bonds between Cu2+ and CN. The torque during static vulcanization, tensile strength, and cross‐linking density of the obtained NBR/CuSO4/TMTM vulcanizates are better than that of NBR/CuSO4 vulcanizates, which is attributed to the synergistic effect between the radicals formed by the splitting of TMTM under thermal activation and the Cu2+; moreover, the highly reactive [Cu(SnCNMe2)]•2+ complexes are formed by the synergistic effect and promote the coordination stability of NBR and CuSO4 effectively. The excellent tensile properties of the prepared NBR/CuSO4/TMTM vulcanizates via synergistic effect made the metal‐coordination cross‐linking attractive in the field of industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly efficient oil‐water separation shows urgent demand in industrial applications, especially in oil‐spill accidents and organic solvent separation. Herein, a novel method is proposed for continuous oil‐water separation by a pressure response through valve, which is loaded in a flexible convolute superhydrophobic/superoleophilic film based on low‐density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene‐propylene‐diene terpolymer (EPDM) thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV). The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic LDPE/EPDM TPV film (with contact angles of oil and water are 0° and 161.9°± 2.2°) is prepared only via a molding process where sandpaper is used as the template. The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic property of the TPV film shows robust performance in the activity endurance test. More importantly, the flexible LDPE/EPDM TPV film can be easily rolled up and loaded in through valve, which is the pressure response channel in oil‐water separation. The typical separation pressure of oil and water is 3.01 and 6.17 kPa, which means the oil can be completely separated from the oil‐water mixture under proper pressure in the pressure response through valve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]