Underwater self-cleaning PEDOT-PSS hydrogel mesh for effective separation of corrosive and hot oil/water mixtures

Oil-polluted water is a worldwide problem due to the increasing industry oily wastewater and the frequent oil-spill pollution. Here, PEDOT-PSS hydrogel meshes are successfully prepared by using in-situ chemical polymerization on Ti mesh substrate, which are composed of hierarchical porous structures and present superhydrophilicity in air and superoleophobicity underwater. And PEDOT-PSS hydrogel meshes exhibit excellent environmental stability under a series of harsh conditions, which are used for the separation of the mixtures of oil and various corrosive and active aqueous solutions, including strong acidic, alkaline, or salt aqueous solutions, even hot-water. The hydrogel meshes offer high separation efficiency of up to 99.9%. Importantly, the mesh still reveals 99.5% separation efficiency even after 50 times separation operation, demonstrating its excellent durability that shows attractive potential for practical oil-water separation in industry and everyday life.