Separating small amount of water and hydrophobic solvents by novel superhydrophobic copper meshes

A novel filtration device for the separation of small amount of water and hydrophobic solvents was proposed, and its separation efficiency was also quantitatively studied for the first time. This goal was achieved by a copper mesh with superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties, which was fabricated by simply immersing in aqueous solution of NaOH and K₂S₂O₈, and subsequent modification with n-dodecanethiol. The results demonstrated that a slightly tilted copper mesh could separate small amount of hydrophobic solvents and water with high efficiency. This finding provides a new strategy to the development of functional filtration devices that may have many potential applications in the field such as biomedicine, microanalysis, purification, etc.