Copper Nanoparticles Modified Superhydrophobic Electrospun Carbon Nanofiber Membranes with Enhanced the Oil–water Separation Performance

Nowadays, the low hydrophobicity and separation efficiency of original electrospun carbon nanofiber (CF) membrane greatly limit its further application in the oil–water separation process. To address this problem, polydopamine (PDA) was coated on the surface of CF via dip-coating method, playing a role of chelation and reduction in the process of electroless plating, so as to deposit copper nanoparticles on the surface of nanofiber. Subsequently, 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane was used for fluorination treatment to successfully obtain superhydrophobic electrospun carbon nanofiber (F/Cu/PDA/CF) membrane. The results show that F/Cu/PDA/CF membrane has good water contact angle (WCA, 158.5°) and excellent separation performance. The separation efficiency of oil–water mixture and emulsion is greater than 99.4%. Furthermore, the F/Cu/PDA/CF membrane demonstrates good environmental stability under different conditions (high/low temperature, UV irradiation, and immersion in organic solvents). These results indicate that superhydrophobic F/Cu/PDA/CF membrane has great application potential in the treatment of oily wastewater.