Electrospun nanoscale bent fibrous membrane with controllable porous structure and hydrophilic modification for high-efficiency oil-water separation, particle/bacterial filtration and antibacterial applications

Abstract

Electrospun nanofiber membranes' pore structure and hydrophilicity are essential for water filtration. Pore size may be efficiently lowered in this work by decreasing the fiber diameter, changing the fiber morphology, and constructing a silicon hybrid hydrophilic coating. The hydrophilic nanofiber membranes have a small pore size (0.72 μm) and an extremely low diameter (73.5 nm). Meanwhile, the synergistic combination of catechol (CA) and tannic acid (TA) with γ-(2, 3-epoxypropyl) propyl trimethoxysilane (KH560) resulted in the formation of a homogenous silicon hybrid hydrophilic coating on the surface of the fiber membrane. The hydrophilic nanofiber membrane has an outstanding hydrophilicity (WCA = 28.3°), excellent oil-in-water emulsion separation efficiency (>99.0%), extremely high particle filtration efficiency (>99.0%), and an LRV value of more than 7.50 for Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). At 6.0 mg/mL, the antibacterial efficiency was 80% against E. coli and 96% against S. aureus. The preparation of such hydrophilic membranes can provide a novel strategy for high-quality design and development that can be applied to various water filtration applications.