Preparation of Hydrophobic Fly Ash by Surface Modification and Oil-water Separation Devices

A simple and effective superhydrophobic mesh was designed and made to separate oil-water mixture. Alkali-activated fly ash reacted with 1-bromooctadecane to prepare superhydrophobic modified fly ash (MFA) with low surface energy through Williamson ether synthesis. The MFA powder was then coated uniformly on a stainless steel mesh (SSM) along with the epoxy resin E44 and curing agent T31 to give the superhydrophobic MFA-modified stainless steel mesh (MFA-SSM). The MFA-SSM has a high static water contact angle (CA) of 150.1° and can separate various oil or organic solvent from water with >95% separation efficiency. The oil-water separation efficiency remained high after 30 runs of petroleum ether/water separation. The developed superhydrophobic stainless steel mesh is expected to have wider use in oil-water separation.