Fabrication of superhydrophobic Cu-BiOBr surface for oil/water separation and water soluble pollutants degradation

Materials with superhydrophobicity have been successful in removing and recovering oily pollutants in water, however, it cannot get rid of water soluble pollutants. In this paper, we prepared a superhydrophobic Cu-BiOBr surface which combined the superhydrophobicity with the photodegradation property to realize the oil/water separation and the removal of water-soluble pollutants. The result shows that the surface of the material has macroporous (620 nm) and mesoporous (3.2 nm) structure. The degradation efficiency for Rhodamine B (Rh B) does not change after 5 times of repeated use, which indicates the good degradation stability of the material. In addition, the surface remains superhydrophobic and high flux for up to 11 cycles. The preparation process is simple and economical with no complicated and expensive equipment but only filtration and spraying used. A 13 cm x13 cm superhydrophobic Cu-BiOBr mesh was also prepared to verify the feasibility of large scale fabrication.