Basalt fiber fabric synergistically decorated by MnO2 nanosheets/stearic acid for the enhancement of oil-recovery and anti-icing behavior

Cross-weaved basalt fiber fabric (CBFF) woven from basalt fiber (BF), as a natural inorganic product, which presented a highly research value and widely application field, due to its high chemical stability, non-toxic, non-combustible and sound mechanical property. (Super)hydrophobic surface has recently received extraordinary attention, focusing both on novel preparation-used materials and application. In this work, cross-weaved basalt fiber fabric was synergistically decorated by MnO 2 nanosheets/stearic acid (SA) and the superhydrophobic inorganic/organic composite (CBFF@MnO 2 /SA) was obtained by hydrothermal processes. MnO 2 nanosheets self-assembled on the surface of CBFF (CBFF@MnO 2 ) presented honeycomb roughness with the micro/nanometer-sized spaces among the MnO 2 nanosheets. The water contact angles of CBFF, CBFF@MnO 2 and CBFF@MnO 2 /SA samples were 21.6, 120.0 and 155.5°, respectively. The result indicated that cross-weaved basalt fiber fabric exhibited an obvious superhydrophobic property after the modification by MnO 2 nanosheets and stearic acid. The as-prepared materials were applied in the simulation of oil/water separation and anti-icing process. Oil/water separation results not only displayed the separation efficiency up 95.0% by selective absorption for light oil/water system, but also showed the separation efficiency above 97.2% by filtration of oil for heavy oil/water system. Furthermore, CBFF@MnO 2 /SA could be used as the filter membrane in dynamic suction filtration device for oil recovery in oil spill accidents. Anti-icing experiments demonstrated that prepared CBFF@MnO 2 /SA had an obviously ice-over delay with the value of 166.6%.