Spatial light modulated femtosecond laser ablated durable superhydrophobic copper mesh for oil-water separation and self-cleaning

With the rapid development of marine oil transport, marine accidents of tankers occur frequently and oil spill has brought a heavy burden to the marine environment. In order to solve this problem, many scholars have studied special wettability surface for oil-water separation. However, many challenges still exist in rapid manufacturing of large area wettability surfaces. In this paper, an efficient and rapid method to fabricate superhydrophobic and superoleophilic copper mesh surface by spatial light modulated femtosecond laser is proposed. The processing efficiency is 15 times higher than the traditional laser direct writing technology and the as-prepared mesh have more than 95% separation efficiency for various oil-water mixtures, even after ten times of separation. Moreover, the surface exhibits excellent stability after heat preservation at 200 degrees C, -18 degrees C and being immersed 10 wt% NaCl solutions for 2 h, respectively. Meanwhile, the surface possesses excellent self-cleaning ability like lotus leaf. This study may provide a path for the efficient preparation of special wettability surfaces by using spatial light modulator and femtosecond lasers.