Flexible Mesoporous Membranes with Revivability and Superwettability for Sustainable Oil–Water Separation

Abstract

Separating emulsified oil–water emulsions is still a significant challenge owing to the serious fouling and low permeation flux of the membrane. Here, a flexible mesoporous TiO2-SiO2 composite membrane with revivability and superwettability was prepared via a sol electrospinning followed by calcination. The resulting membrane features abundant hydroxyl groups on the nanofibers, which can serve as the hydrogen bond acceptors to bind water molecules, forming a water cushion for oil repellence. It is capable of efficiently separating oil-in-water emulsion with a very high permeation flux of 3159 Lm–2 h–1 and a high separation efficiency of 99.94%. More importantly, the fouled membrane can be totally reclaimed with its original superwettability and separation performance by high-temperature treatment within five cycles. We believe that the provided strategy on tackling membrane fouling is highly effective, presenting a promising perspective in sustainable oil–water separation.

Polystyrene Nanofibrous Membrane Infused with TiO2 Nanoparticles by a One-Step Electrospinning Process for Effective Oil–Water Separation

“…Examples include: incorporating TiO 2 and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) into a PVDF and TiO 2 and SiO 2 into poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) to fabricate hydrophilic ternary nanofibrous composites. These hydrophilic and underwater oleophobic surfaces were tested for emulsion separation. − To the best of our knowledge, there are no existing reports in the literature regarding the fabrication of TiO 2 -incorporated PS nanofibers for oil–water separation.…”

High Efficient Construction and Comprehensive Evaluation of Superhydrophobic Filter Screen Coatings

“…At present, the key to the preparation of special wetting oil/water separation materials is to change the roughness and surface energy of the substrate surface. The main methods are electrospinning [9], coating [10,11] sol-gel [12], hydrothermal synthesis [13], template method [14], etc. However, most of these preparation methods require special equipment, harsh preparation conditions, and are not conducive to industrial production.…”