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Smart surfaces with responsive wettability are unstable, and depend upon continuous external stimuli, which limits their widespread application in switchable oil/water emulsions separations. In this study, a Ti‐based 3D porous structure (SLM‐3DTi) is printed using advanced selective laser melting (SLM) technology for the switchable separation of oil/water emulsion. With the assistance of the computer program, porous structure and re‐entrant texture can be easily designed and printed in one step. Without any continuous external stimulus, the wettability of SLM‐3DTi can be reversibly switched between underwater superoleophobicity and underoil superhydrophobicity simply by drying and washing cycles. The SLM‐3DTi achieves switchable surfactant‐stabilized oil‐in‐water emulsion (SSE(o/w)) and surfactants‐stabilized water‐in‐oil emulsion (SSE(w/o)) separation with purity above 99.8% at a flux of more than 2000 L m−2 h−1. In addition, the re‐entrant texture of the SLM‐3DTi surface is formed with the partially melting powder particles on the part contour, which has much stronger mechanical durability than any binder. Furthermore, SLM‐3DTi has excellent corrosion resistance due to the material properties of Ti. More importantly, based on the visualization analysis of the simulation, the mechanism of SLM‐3DTi emulsion separation is further elucidated. Therefore, SLM‐3DTi has broad practical application potential for high‐flux, high‐purity, and switchable oil/water emulsion separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the trade‐off between purity and flux, the development of high‐purity, high‐flux oil–water separation materials is still an arduous challenge. Herein, to achieve emulsion separation with high purity and high permeability, fluorinated graphene/poly(vinyl alcohol) aerogel (FGPA) with strong honeycomb was obtained via a facile freeze‐drying method, and the separation mechanism was investigated via computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) simulation. The as‐prepared FGPA exhibited superhydrophobicity‐superoleophobicity and cyclic compression stability. Under the complex pore and superhydrophobicity, FGPA could separate water‐in‐oil emulsions with droplet sizes several times smaller than their own aperture only under gravity with ultrahigh flux (3255 L m−2 h−1) and ultrahigh purity (99.9%). Also, the separation process as visualized using simulations revealed that the vortex accelerates the demulsification behavior and promotes the gathering of water droplets rebounding on the superhydrophobic surface, so that the water droplets are intercepted. Therefore, FGPA has broad practical application potential in high‐flux and high‐purity oil–water emulsion separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, an in‐depth exploration of the trajectory optimization process of multilateral thin metal rubber (MT‐MR) in laying to build a virtual fabrication model that reflects the morphology and macro‐properties of material is done. According to the MT‐MR automatic blank laying process, which is based on the iteration mechanism of a local coordinate system in global space, and dynamically coupling with the Rodrigues rotation matrix, a parametric curve model under 3D random trajectory is constructed. Based on the evaluation of the background grid projection method, the optimization of the blank forming path of MT‐MR is discussed in depth using the improved multi‐objective genetic algorithm, and a MT‐MR complex network structure model based on the path optimization laying process is constructed. The structure and performance optimization of MT‐MR is further verified by combining virtual fabrication technology and experimental means. The results show that compared with MT‐MR with traditional experience‐based trajectory laying, the component with automatic trajectory laying optimization based on an improved genetic algorithm has a more uniform and compact wire turn structure. Therefore, an in‐depth discussion of the optimization of the MT‐MR automatic laying trajectory with a special configuration is presented and some theoretical guidance for the application of this material laying process is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]