A dual-modification strategy for the preparation of super-amphiphobic nanofibrous membranes for high-efficiency oil aerosol separation

Abstract

This study presents a highly effective FOTS-TiO2@SiO2 Nano fibrous membrane (NFM) with super-amphiphobic properties for oil aerosol purification. The membrane was fabricated by modifying the surface roughness of electrospun SiO2 NFM with a uniform array of TiO2 nanocones, followed by surface energy modification using 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctyltrimethoxysilane (FOTS). The NFM exhibited exceptional contact angles towards both water (167.9°) and n-hexadecane (154.7°) as well as extremely low oil adhesion (38.7 μN). At a gas velocity of 3.2 m/min, the NFM demonstrated excellent oil aerosol separation performance, with a filtration efficiency of 99.87 % and a resistance of 10.0 kPa. The amphiphobic NFM also exhibited a good regeneration ability, with higher efficiency than SiO2 NFM after three rounds of filtration. These results suggest that the FOTS-TiO2@SiO2 NFM has promising potential for cleaning oil-bearing gas.