Robust and durable superhydrophobic electrospun nanofibrous mats via a simple Cu nanocluster immobilization for oil-water contamination.

Electrospun nanofibrous membranes with a large number of nano-sized micropore possess excellent potential in the applications of oil harvesting and oil/water separation. In this study, a green and simple approach was successfully applied to fabricate superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous mats through the combination of electrospinning and electroless plating techniques. We designed hierarchical structure by immobilizing Cu nanocluster on the surfaces of Ag seeds loaded electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers and followed with a surface modification process by n-hexadecyl mercaptan immersion. The fabricated superhydrophobic PAN nanofibrous membranes showed the wetting property with a water contact angle (WCA) of 154.6° and a sliding angle lower than 8.0°. Owing to the super hydrophobicity and their high porosity of 94.40%, the superhydrophobic nanofibrous mats were sequentially employed for both oil harvesting and oil/water separation to purify the water which was contaminated by various organic solvents and oils. The results indicated that the nanofibrous mats showed a very high separation efficiency and rapid separating speed only by gravity-driven. In addition, these mats also exhibited excellent mechanical strength, high stability and remarkable recyclability in terms of superhydrophobicity and oil separation/adsorbency performance. These findings demonstrate that composite nanofibers are promising candidates for oil-contaminated water purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]