Robust multifunctional rGO/MXene@PPS fibrous membrane for harsh environmental applications

Abstract

Efficient cleanup of crude oil spills and wastewater treatment in harsh conditions remains a big challenge due to the absent of robust membrane materials. Herein, a kind of reduced graphene oxide and MXene (Ti3C2Tx) decorated PPS fibrous membrane with super chemical-resistance for all-weather cleanup of crude oil via Joule heat and solar-driven heat performance was reported. With the assist of the Joule heat and photothermal effect, the crude oil adsorption rate of composite membrane improved by more than 97 %. More importantly, the robust membrane still remained excellent oil/water separation performance even under strong acid and alkali conditions. Meanwhile, the gravity driven oil (dichloromethane)/water separation flux of composite membrane reached 11,502 L m-2h−1 with a separation efficiency up to 99.98 %. Moreover, the composite membrane could realize solar-driven evaporation for seawater desalination due to its great photothermal properties, the evaporation rate could be up to 1.235 kg m-2h−1 under one sun. The composite membrane also exhibited great electrical conductivity and EMI shielding performance for radiation protection with efficiency of 61.9 dB. This robust multifunctional fibrous membrane design offers a progressive approach for the efficient cleanup of viscous crude oil spills, oil/water separation, solar desalination and EMI shielding under harsh environments.