Calcinable Polymer Membrane with Revivability for Efficient Oily-Water Remediation

Zhigao Zhu; Wei Wang; Dianpeng Qi; Yifei Luo; Yuanren Liu; Ying Xu; Fuyi Cui; Ce Wang; Xiaodong Chen

doi:10.1002/adma.201801870

Calcinable Polymer Membrane with Revivability for Efficient Oily-Water Remediation

Adv Mater. 2018 Jul;30(30):e1801870. doi: 10.1002/adma.201801870. Epub 2018 Jun 7.

Authors

Zhigao Zhu¹, Wei Wang¹, Dianpeng Qi², Yifei Luo², Yuanren Liu¹, Ying Xu¹, Fuyi Cui³, Ce Wang⁴, Xiaodong Chen²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, P. R. China.
² Innovative Centre for Flexible Devices (iFLEX), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore.
³ College of Urban Construction and Environmental Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, P. R. China.
⁴ Alan G. Macdiarmid Institute, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, P. R. China.

PMID: 29882372
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201801870

Abstract

Fouling of polymeric membranes remains a major challenge for long-term operation of oily-water remediation. The common reclamation methods to recycle fouled membranes have the issues of either incomplete degradation of organic pollutants or damage to filter membranes. Here, a calcinable polymer membrane with effective reclamation after fouling is reported, which shows full recovery of the original oil/water separation efficiency. The membrane is made of polysulfonamide/polyacrylonitrile fibers by emulsion electrospinning, followed by hydrothermal decoration of TiO₂ nanoparticles. The bonding structured fibrous membrane displays outstanding thermal stability in air (400 °C), strong acid/alkali resistance (at the pH range from 1 to 13), and robust tensile strength. As a result, the chemically fouled polymeric membrane can be easily reclaimed without decreasing in separation performance and mechanical properties by annealing treatment. As a proof-of-concept, the as-prepared membrane is integrated into a wastewater separation tank, which achieves a high water flux over 3000 L m^-2 h^-1 and oil rejection efficiency of 99.6% for various oil-in-water emulsions. The presented strategy on membrane fabrication is believed to be an effective remedy for membrane fouling, and should apply in a wider field of filtration industry.

Keywords: calcinable polymer membranes; composite materials; electrospinning; oily-water remediation; revivable membranes.