Preparation of superwetting γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-TiO₂ coated fabric and its water purification performances

Anisotropic wettable materials have become a hot spot in oil-water separation research because of their apparently opposite absorption characteristics for oil and water. In this paper, γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and hydrophilic nano TiO₂ were mixed and applied to the fabric. APTES-TiO₂ coated superhydrophilic underwater superoleophobic fabric (APTES-TiO₂@fabric) was obtained after hydrolyzing and crosslinking. The modified fabric was characterized by contact angle measuring instrument, FTIR, XPS, FESEM, XRD and EDS. The results show that APTES-TiO₂ is successfully coated on the surface of the fabric, which has a water contact angle of 0° in air and an oil contact angle of greater than 152° for the selected oil in water. In the oil-water separation test, the separation efficiency of APTES-TiO₂@fabric for the several light oils is above 99%, and it still has a good separation efficiency after 5 separation cycles and soaked in acid-base salt solution. In addition, the fabric also has excellent photocatalytic performance. Under 12 h of ultraviolet irradiation, it can degrade the methylene blue in water and adsorb to itself, achieving the effect of water purification and self-cleaning. The results show that APTES-TiO₂@fabric has good oil-water separation and photocatalytic performance, which can be used as a reference for water purification in practical applications.