AI Article Synopsis
- The study explores the creation of Janus membranes that can efficiently separate oil and water, targeting extreme wettability differences and chemical resistance.
- The new membrane features a highly hydrophilic side and a hydrophobic side with a significant contact angle difference of around 150°, enabling effective separation of various emulsions while maintaining high flow rates.
- It achieves over 98% separation efficiency for both oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions, and shows excellent antifouling characteristics and reusability, enhancing its practical application for environmental and industrial purposes.
Article Abstract
Extremely asymmetric wettability, high wetting selectivity, instantaneous superwetting behaviors (low transmembrane resistance), and superior resistance to chemicals and solvents are needed for Janus membranes for switchable oil/water separation. However, it is still challenging to obtain Janus membranes with such properties. In this study, a surface with metastable hydrophobicity is constructed on one side of the chemically stable superhydrophilic TiO@PPS membrane by adjusting the hydrophobization depth and the morphology of the hydrophobic layer via a water-oil interfacial grafting. The prepared Janus membrane exhibits a high water contact angle difference of ∼150° between its two surfaces with maintaining the superior penetrability of the original membrane, which makes it capable to separate both oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions with high fluxes and accuracy. The separation efficiency is higher than 98% for the separation of the two kinds of emulsions. The fluxes of the surfactant-free toluene-in-water and water-in-toluene emulsions are up to 6.4 × 10 and 9.5 × 10 L m h, respectively. Furthermore, the Janus membrane exhibits desirable antifouling performance and reusability during usage.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b05191 | DOI Listing |
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