Sol–Gel SiO2 on electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofiber for efficient oil-in-water emulsion separation

A membrane for efficient oil-in-water emulsion separation requires a surface with hydrophilic/underwater oleophobic properties. In this study, a simple and facile sol–gel strategy was proposed for preparing oil-in-water emulsion separation membrane with hydrophilic/underwater oleophobic surface by g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials science 2020-12, Vol.55 (34), p.16129-16142
Main Authors: Ying, Zong-Yao, Shao, Zai-Dong, Wang, Lin, Cheng, Xuan, Zheng, Yu-Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemical Routes to Materials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Classical Mechanics
Crystallography and Scattering Methods
Electrospinning
Emulsions
Fluxes
Heptanes
Hydrophilicity
Low pressure
Materials Science
Membranes
Nanofibers
Paraffins
Polyacrylonitrile
Polymer Sciences
Separation
Silicon dioxide
Sol-gel processes
Solid Mechanics
Stability
Structural hierarchy
Toluene
Underwater structures
Xylene
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Summary:A membrane for efficient oil-in-water emulsion separation requires a surface with hydrophilic/underwater oleophobic properties. In this study, a simple and facile sol–gel strategy was proposed for preparing oil-in-water emulsion separation membrane with hydrophilic/underwater oleophobic surface by growing amorphous SiO 2 sheets on an electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofiber membrane (PAN NFM). The composite membranes (PAN@SiO 2 NFMs) showed excellent properties in mechanical strength, hierarchical microporous structure, hydrophilicity and underwater oleophobicity, as well as remarkable performance in water flux, separation efficiency and cyclic stability. Under a low pressure of 1 kPa driven by the self-weight of emulsion, the PAN@SiO 2 NFM demonstrated a large flux of 3994.3 ± 356.0 L m −2  h −1 and a high separation efficiency of 99.50%. In ten successive cycle tests, fluxes of the PAN@SiO 2 NFM remained above 3000 L m −2  h −1 , while the residual TOC in filtrate was stable at around 30 mg L −1 , indicating the PAN@SiO 2 NFM has excellent cyclic stability. It is also demonstrated that the PAN@SiO 2 NFM is suitable for the separation of various kinds of emulsions, such as toluene, n -heptane, paraffin liquid, n -hexane and xylene. Hence, the prepared PAN@SiO 2 NFM is a promising hydrophilic/underwater oleophobic membrane for efficient emulsion separation. Graphic abstract
ISSN:0022-2461
1573-4803
DOI:10.1007/s10853-020-05155-8