Fabricated superhydrophobic three-dimensional rambutan-like-β-NiOOH @sponge skeletons for multitasking oil–water separation

In this paper, oleophilic and superhydrophobic sponges were successfully constructed via a one-pot low temperature hydrothermal method anchoring three-dimensional rambutan-like-β-NiOOH microspheres into sponge skeletons and lauric acid modification. The constructed modified three-dimensional rambutan-like-β-NiOOH @sponge (the static contact angle of 153.5°) possessed outstanding oil sorption capacity (separation efficiency is nearly 99%) towards the various organics/oils and excellent recyclability after 30 cycles of adsorption-squeezing. Importantly, modified three-dimensional rambutan-like-β-NiOOH @sponge is capable of separating surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions and can be utilized for continuous oil-water separation with the aid of a peristaltic pump. This is mainly due to the fact that the three-dimensional hierarchical rambutan-like micronano structure formed by self-assembly with high specific surface area provides a large number of hydrophobic interfaces to improve the hydrophobic properties of sponges. This work presents a new strategy for the designs multitasking oil-water separation materials.