Robust superhydrophobic coating fabricated on copper mesh with anti-corrosion property for oil/water separation

In this work, rod-shaped copper sulfide (CuS) nanostructures were synthesized on copper mesh (CM) by chemical oxidation and subsequent sulfonation. The obtained CuS nanostructures and further 1-dodecanethiol (DDT) modification endowed CM with extraordinary superhydrophobicity and self-cleaning ability. More importantly, the resulted CuS@DDT film was proved to improve the corrosion resistance of CM by electrochemical mea-surements in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. Moreover, the fabricated mesh exhibited superior mechanical stability by adopting different mesh sandpaper for 20 abrasion cycles. Thus, the CuS@DDT CM with above exceptional performances was employed to successfully separate different types of oil from water and delivered desirable recyclability.