Issue 23, 2013

In situ polymerized superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous membranes for gravity driven oil–water separation

Abstract

Creating an efficient, cost-effective method that can provide simple, practical and high-throughput separation of oil–water mixtures has proved extremely challenging. This work responds to these challenges by designing, fabricating and evaluating a novel fluorinated polybenzoxazine (F-PBZ) modified nanofibrous membrane optimized to achieve gravity driven oil–water separation. The membrane design is then realized by a facile combination of electrospun poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA) nanofibers and an in situ polymerized F-PBZ functional layer incorporating SiO2 nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs). By employing the F-PBZ/SiO2 NP modification, the pristine hydrophilic PMIA nanofibrous membranes are endowed with promising superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 161° and superoleophilicity with an oil contact angle of 0°. This new membrane shows high thermal stability (350 °C) and good repellency to hot water (80 °C), and achieves an excellent mechanical strength of 40.8 MPa. Furthermore, the as-prepared membranes exhibited fast and efficient separation of oil–water mixtures by a solely gravity driven process, which makes them good candidates for industrial oil-polluted water treatments and oil spill cleanup, and also provided new insights into the design and development of functional nanofibrous membranes through F-PBZ modification.

Graphical abstract: In situ polymerized superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous membranes for gravity driven oil–water separation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Jul 2013
Accepted
20 Aug 2013
First published
27 Aug 2013

Nanoscale, 2013,5, 11657-11664

In situ polymerized superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous membranes for gravity driven oil–water separation

X. Tang, Y. Si, J. Ge, B. Ding, L. Liu, G. Zheng, W. Luo and J. Yu, Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 11657 DOI: 10.1039/C3NR03937D

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