Pressure Response through Valve for Continuous Oil-Water Separation Based on a Flexible Superhydrophobic/Superoleophilic Thermoplastic Vulcanizate Film

Highly efficient oil-water separation shows urgent demand in industrial applications, especially in oil-spill accidents and organic solvent separation. Herein, a novel method is proposed for continuous oil-water separation by a pressure response through valve, which is loaded in a flexible convolute superhydrophobic/superoleophilic film based on low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV). The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic LDPE/EPDM TPV film (with contact angles of oil and water are 0° and 161.9°± 2.2°) is prepared only via a molding process where sandpaper is used as the template. The superhydrophobic/superoleophilic property of the TPV film shows robust performance in the activity endurance test. More importantly, the flexible LDPE/EPDM TPV film can be easily rolled up and loaded in through valve, which is the pressure response channel in oil-water separation. The typical separation pressure of oil and water is 3.01 and 6.17 kPa, which means the oil can be completely separated from the oil-water mixture under proper pressure in the pressure response through valve.