Superhydrophobic Cuprous Oxide Nanostructures on Phosphor-Copper Meshes and Their Oil–Water Separation and Oil Spill Cleanup

A simple aqueous solution-immersion process was established to fabricate highly dense ordered Cu₂O nanorods on commercial phosphor-copper mesh, with which the preparation was accomplished in distilled water. The present method, with the advantages of simple operation, low cost, short reaction time, and environmental friendliness, can be well adopted to fabricate desired Cu₂O nanostructures on the phosphor-copper mesh under mild conditions. After surface modification with 1-dodecanethiol, the Cu₂O nanostructure obtained on the phosphor-copper mesh exhibits excellent superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. Besides, a “mini boat” made from the as-prepared superhydrophobic phosphor-copper mesh can float freely on water surface and in situ collect oil from water surface. This demonstrates that the present approach, being facile, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly, could find promising application in oil–water separation and off shore oil spill cleanup.