Abstract
Waste polyethylene (PE) poses potential risks to the environment and humans, because of its durability, non-biodegradability, and meager recyclability rate. As a resource recycling strategy, functional waste PE-derived materials could significantly promote environmental sustainability and public health by reducing waste PE. In this work, a hydrophobic aerogel membrane from waste PE plastic was fabricated by combining the swelling, solvent extraction, and followed by freeze-drying processes. The characterization results indicated that the obtained aerogel membrane exhibits unique ultra-light properties with rough and porous surfaces, which can enhance the oil/water separation selectivity and membrane flux. The hydrophobic PE aerogel membrane could realize traditional water-in-oil emulsion separation with separation efficiencies as high as 98.75 % and permeating flux up to 1726 L m-2 h-1. After 50 cycles, the separation flux remained over 1700 L m-2h-1, indicating its good recycling ability and durability. Moreover, it maintains excellent emulsion separation capability in harsh environments, including acid, alkali, and concentered salt. Also, the used PE aerogel membrane could be further converted into the new one to achieve a beneficial mode of waste closed-loop recycling.
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