Trifunctional Copper Mesh for Integrated Oil/Water Separation, SERS Detection, and Pollutant Degradation

In real environment, wastewaters containing various oily organic solvents or soluble dyes bring serious damage to the environment and threaten the health of human. Although substantial efforts are devoted to removing oily pollutants from water, it cannot solve the problem of water pollution thoroughly since some soluble dyes still exist in separated water phase. Meanwhile, it is still a challenge to directly detect pollutants with low concentration in oil/water mixtures by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) technique owing to the mutual interference of Raman signals by mixed organic solvents and soluble dyes. Therefore, developing an effective solution for separating oil/water mixture, detecting, and degrading pollutants simultaneously is highly desired. In this work, a trifunctional superhydrophobic copper mesh which integrates the separation, detection, and further degradation of the dyes in one material is reported. The trifunctional copper mesh is fabricated by in situ growing Au/AgCl nanoparticles on the surface of copper mesh. Au/AgCl nanoparticles improve the roughness and hydrophobic performance of copper mesh. Au provides abundant plasmonic hotspots which are beneficial to the improved SERS activity, and AgCl exhibits highly efficient photocatalytic ability for degrading organic dyes. The idea of integrating three functions in one substrate will open a novel horizon for realistic wastewater purification.