A super-hydrophobic and antibiofouling membrane constructed from carbon sphere-welded MnO2 nanowires for ultra-fast separation of emulsion

Abstract

The discharge of large quantities of oily wastewater has become a serious threat to ecosystem and human health. Superhydrophobic/superhydrophobic under-oil porous materials have received considerable attention for its applications in oil/water mixture separation. However, some challenges still exist, such as low flux, poor stability, and high production cost. Here, a simple vacuum filtration-calcination welding method was used to fabricate super-hydrophobic membranes for the ultra-fast separation of W/O emulsions. Inorganic nanowires MnO2 and carbon spheres were used as the membrane-forming material. Here, carbon spheres not only function as the pore-forming and weld agent to form welded nanowire-constructed framework, but also improve membrane surface roughness. Through this fabrication technique, the resulting composite membrane has a very stable structure. Compared with those of most previously reported advanced oil/water separation membranes, the super-hydrophobic MnO2&Carbon Sphere (MCS) composite membranes show remarkable high separation fluxes and separation efficiencies for various oil phases with different viscosities. In addition, the superhydrophobic membranes show excellent reusability, which is greatly important for long-term oil/water separation applications. In addition, the prepared super-hydrophobic MCS composite membrane shows obvious anti-bacterial properties. The high separation fluxes and long-lasting cycling stability of super-hydrophobic MCS composite membrane make it show great potential in water purification application.