@Article{icces.2023.09916,
AUTHOR = {Yunyun Song, Xu Zhang, Jialei Yang, Zhongqiang Zhang, Guanggui Cheng},
TITLE = {Ultrafast Adsorption of Tiny Oil Droplets Within Water by  Superhydrophobic-Superoleophilic Conical Micro-arrays},
JOURNAL = {The International Conference on Computational \& Experimental Engineering and Sciences},
VOLUME = {25},
YEAR = {2023},
NUMBER = {2},
PAGES = {1--1},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/icces/v25n2/53825},
ISSN = {1933-2815},
ABSTRACT = {Although floating oil with large particle sizes can easily be separated from water by membrane separation 
methods, tiny oil droplets with tremendously small volume force and density gradient at oil-water interfaces 
within water lead to barriers of oil-water separation. Consequently, tiny oil droplets remain in the water, 
resulting in energy waste, environmental pollution and biological health hazard. Traditional super-wetting 
membranes with extremely small pore sizes were easily blocked during the oil-water separation process. 
Inspired by the cactus and rice leaf, we developed a superhydrophobic-superoleophilic surface with conical 
micro-arrays to realize ultrafast adsorption of tiny oil droplets within the water. The tiny oil droplets 
transport directionally from the apex to the bottom of the conical microcolumn driven by Laplace pressure 
and wettability gradient force. By adjusting oil volume and structure size, the oil droplet movement velocity 
is up to 14.5 mm/s and the oil-water separation efficiency reaches 99.99% without external pressure. 
Additionally, the large difference in movement velocity is helpful to realize the separation of different oil 
phases. This work provides the theoretical basis and technical support to fabricate underwater apparatus 
for the highly efficient collection of tiny oil droplets and phase separation of multiphase oil mixture.},
DOI = {10.32604/icces.2023.09916}
}