Efficient separation of free organic liquid mixtures based on underliquid superlyophobic coconut shell coated meshes

Abstract The separation of multiphase liquid mixtures plays an important role in industrial production and environmental protection. The organic liquids (OLs) usually show approximate wettability on most of common materials owing to smaller surface tension. Therefore, the separation of OL mixtures is more difficult than the separation of oil/water mixtures. The current research on separation of OL mixtures is mainly through the covalent modification to precisely control the surface energy of materials, which is extremely complicated. Herein, a novel underliquid superlyophobic concept was presented for the separation of immiscible OL mixtures, which only depended on a relatively stable liquid-repellent interface. Furthermore, the minimum system’s free energy principle was used to explain this wetting behavior. Compared with the previous reports, the work does not involve in various low surface energy substances, thus it is facile, eco-friendly and easily scale-up. Thus, the study provides a general strategy to separate the OL mixtures for the product purification and environmental protection.