Separating materials of oil/water are widely used to deal with oil leakage and industrial oily wastewater. Herein, hydrophobic–oleophilic porous ceramics of Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ were prepared by combustion synthesis-molding method and modified with 3-amino-propyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The effects of Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ mole ratio, starch content and sintering temperature on permeability of porous ceramics were investigated in detail. When the molar ratio of Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ is 1:0.15 and the amount of starch is 35 wt%, the porous ceramics with average pore diameter of about 42 nm and porosity of about 46% can be obtained after sintering at 1450 °C for 2 h. APTES was adopted to modify the porous ceramic of Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ to construct the hydrophobic surface. The optimum conditions of modification for the Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ ceramic were that the time was 4 h, the temperature was 70 °C and the modifier concentration was 2%. Most notably, the as-prepared hydrophobic ceramic was a rare example that adopted hydrophilic molecule to build hydrophobic material. Due to the favorable permeability and hydrophobicity, the Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ ceramic was designed into sand core to separate oil/water mixture. The ceramic displays high separation efficiency (93%), good reuse performance (10 cycles) and super abrasion resistance (10 times).

油水分离材料广泛用于处理漏油和工业含油废水。在此，Al ₂ O ₃ -ZrO ₂疏水-亲油多孔陶瓷采用燃烧合成-成型法制备，并用3-氨基-丙基三乙氧基硅烷（APTES）改性。详细研究了Al ₂ O ₃ -ZrO ₂摩尔比、淀粉含量和烧结温度对多孔陶瓷渗透性的影响。当Al ₂ O ₃ –ZrO ₂摩尔比为1:0.15，淀粉量为35wt%，在1450℃下烧结2h后可得到平均孔径约42nm，孔隙率约46%的多孔陶瓷。采用APTES对Al ₂ O ₃ –ZrO ₂多孔陶瓷进行改性，构建疏水表面。Al ₂ O ₃ -ZrO ₂陶瓷改性的最佳条件是时间为4 h，温度为70 ℃，改性剂浓度为2%。最值得注意的是，所制备的疏水陶瓷是采用亲水分子构建疏水材料的罕见例子。由于良好的渗透性和疏水性，Al ₂ O ₃–ZrO ₂陶瓷被设计成砂芯以分离油/水混合物。陶瓷表现出高分离效率（93%）、良好的重复使用性能（10次循环）和超强耐磨性（10次）。