A novel PET fabric with durable anti-fouling performance for reusable and efficient oil-water separation

The crude oil leakage pollution has become a serious problem which frequently occurs all over the world. To solve this issue, highly efficient oil-water mixtures separation material requires urgently. Herein, a superhydrophobic PET fabric was developed by using a facile and novel method based on UV induced radical polymerization. The prepared PET fabric showed excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 156.3 degrees +/- 2 degrees and anti-fouling property either in air or in oil. This superhydrophobic PET fabric not only can be used as a robust oil absorbing material (48 similar to 73 times of its own weight), but also an outstanding separation oil material with separation efficiency of 98.6%, and still maintains 97% after recycled for 10 times. Additionally, the obtained fabric exhibited self-cleaning property and remains durable anti-fouling performance under harsh environments. In sum, this fluorine-free superhydrophobic PET fabric can be a promising crude oil leakage clean up material with self-cleaning property.