Morphology‐Control Strategy of the Superhydrophobic Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Surface for Efficient Bubble Adhesion and Wastewater Remediation

Abstract As one common form of gas existing in aqueous environment, gas bubbles have attracted considerable worldwide attention, owing to their promising applications in industrial production and daily life, such as pressure sensors, the recovery of valuable minerals from ores, aeration process, and water treatment. Usually, the behaviors of gas bubbles in aqueous environment are mainly dominated by buoyancy force. It drives the gas bubbles out of aqueous medium rapidly, which is unfavorable in various processes, especially in wastewater treatment. In this paper, various types of superhydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) sheets are facilely fabricated, such as five‐pointed star, triangle, circular, and ellipse. Compared with other shapes of superhydrophobic PMMA sheets, the prepared superhydrophobic PMMA circular sheet is capable of efficiently adhering gas bubbles and subsequently elongating their retention time in an aqueous environment. Furthermore, superhydrophobic PMMA circular sheet arrays are prepared, which can greatly improve the degradation efficiency of methyl blue by ozone (O₃). The investigations indicate that the present approach will find wild applications in bubble‐related fields and provide people with inspirations to develop efficient methods to manipulate gas bubbles in aqueous environment.