The sorbents with hydrophobic-oleophilicity were the key to solve the problem of oil spills/leakages occurring globally, and it had become an urgent problem on improving the efficiency of oil-water separation. In nature, some plants, insects and animals were survived in the natural environment by super-hydrophobic structures. And enlighten from nature, the super-hydrophobic materials have attracted tremendous attention as application of oil-water separation. At present, zero-dimensional hydrophobic powder/one-dimensional fibers, two-dimensional hydrophobic meshs/fabrics and three-dimensional hydrophobic porous materials were most commonly used for oil/water separation. This paper mainly summarizes the recent researches on the preparation of hydrophobic-oleophilic materials. And finally, the prospects for future investigations of hydrophobic-oleophilic materials are proposed.