A versatile, highly effective nanofibrous separation membrane

Abstract

Although a wide range of fibrous filters are available for diverse filtration tasks to separate solid or oil particles from a gas or liquid medium, a single filter seldom shows versatile separation capability to perform multi-separation tasks to separate both types of particles from different media. Herein, we report a novel nanofibrous membrane that can separate oil/water emulsions (efficiency over 99.9%) at a flux as high as 4082 L m⁻² h⁻¹ as well as oil aerosol droplets (efficiency of 99.98% for oil droplets sized ∼330 nm) and solid aerosol particles from air (efficiency 85–99%) and micro-sized solid particles from water (efficiency >95%). The fibrous membrane is reusable to accomplish cross-medium filtration tasks. This versatile, highly efficient separation capability originates from the fine fibrous structure and an amphibious superhydrophilic–superoleophobic surface feature. This may be useful for the development of advanced technologies for various environmental protection applications.