Robust superhydrophobic fabrics: Rapid preparation and outstanding photothermal-induced performance

•The superhydrophobic surface is prepared rapidly with UV assistance.•The superhydrophobic fabric exhibits excellent photothermal-induced oil absorption performance.•The oil-water separation efficiency and flux can still reach 16,928.4 L•m−2•h−1 and 98.8 %, respectively, even after 50 separation cycles.•The fabric has outstanding self-healing ability.•The fabric reveals excellent durability and stability under various harsh environments. Developing material that can separate oil-water mixture and absorb spilled crude oil efficiently has become a pressing challenge. To this end, we prepared a polydopamine@octamine nano-capsules based superhydrophobic fabric with photothermal effect rapidly using UV-assisted preparation. The prepared superhydrophobic fabric exhibits excellent photothermal-induced oil absorption and oil-water separation performance. Not only oils with low viscosity can be absorbed efficiently, but also oils with high viscosity can be absorbed quickly. POS fabric could absorb crude oil up to 6.5 times of its own weight. The oil-water separation efficiency and flux could reach more than 98.8 % and 16,900 L·m−2·h−1, respectively. Moreover, the separation efficiency remained unchanged even after 50 separation cycles while the separation flux rose gradually with the increase of oil-water separation cycle. Meanwhile, the as-prepared superhydrophobic fabric reveals outstanding durability and stability. It maintains superhydrophobic performance even after exposed to various harsh conditions such as acids, alkalis, salts, organic solvents, UV light, and mechanical abrasion. Additionally, the fabric has outstanding self-healing ability and which can extend its service life. Therefore, this simple, fast, and environment-friendly preparation method together with the excellent performance of resultant materials is expected to have broad application prospects in the treatment of oily wastewater and offshore crude oil spills. [Display omitted] A superhydrophobic fabric modified with polydopamine@octamine nanocapsules is fabricated rapidly by UV-assisted preparation method. The prepared superhydrophobic fabric exhibits excellent photothermal-induced oil absorption and oil-water separation performance. Meanwhile, the as-prepared superhydrophobic materials reveals outstanding self-healing ability. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic fabrics have outstanding durability and stability, and they maintain superhydrophobic performance even after exposed to various har