One-step facile fabrication of visible light driven antifouling carbon cloth fibers membrane for efficient oil-water separation

In recent years, superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic materials have triggered considerable interest. However, less attention has been paid to the materials with antifouling property and regenerative capacity. Here, we introduced a facile one-step solvothermal method to prepare carbon cloth fibers loaded Co-doped TiO2 (Co-TiO2) with robust antifouling property under visible light driven. The developed membrane exhibited excellent superhydrophilicity (WCA = 0 degrees) and underwater superoleophobicity (OCA = 158 degrees), which could separate a series of oil-water mixtures with high separation efficiency (above 99.8%) under gravity. More importantly, the membrane showed outstanding regenerative capacity and antifouling property under visible light driven. It still kept its underwater superoleophobicity, and separation efficiency was still higher than 98.8% even after 110 cycles. We believe that the predominant membrane could realize practical applications in oil-water separation.