Biodegradable, superhydrophobic walnut wood membrane for the separation of oil/water mixtures

doi:10.1007/s11705-022-2157-z

Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (9) : 1377-1386 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2157-z

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Biodegradable, superhydrophobic walnut wood membrane for the separation of oil/water mixtures

Tong Xing¹, Changqing Dong^1,²(

), Xiaodong Wang³, Xiaoying Hu¹, Changrui Liu³, Haiyang Lv³

¹. National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Power Generation Equipment, School of New Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
². State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
³. National Energy Biological Power Generation Group Corporation LTD, Beijing 100052, China

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Abstract

The preparation of environmentally friendly oil/water separation materials remains a great challenge. Freeze-drying of wood after lignin removal yields wood aerogels, which can be used as substrates to prepare fluorine-free environmentally friendly superhydrophobic materials, However, they are more suitable for absorption rather than filtration applications due to their poor strength. A study using cross-sections of pristine wood chips as substrates retains the original strength of wood, but the use of the cross-sectional of wood pieces limits their thickness, strength, and size. In this paper, a degradable fluorine-free superhydrophobic film (max. water contact angle of approximately 164.2°) with self-cleaning and abrasion resistance characteristics was prepared by a one-step method using pristine and activated walnut longitudinal section films as the substrate, with tetraethyl orthosilicate as a precursor and dodecyltriethoxysilane as a modifier. The tensile strength results show that superhydrophobic films with pristine or activated wood substrates maintained the strength of pristine wood and were 2.2 times stronger than the wood aerogel substrate. In addition, after cross-laminating the two samples, the films had the ability to separate oil and water by continuous filtration with high efficiency (98.5%) and flux (approximately 1.3 × 10³ L∙m^‒2∙h^‒1). The method has potential for the large-scale fabrication of degradable superhydrophobic filtration separation membranes.

Keywords wood nanotechnology superhydrophobic biodegradable surface modification oil/water separation

Corresponding Author(s): Changqing Dong

About author:

Tongcan Cui and Yizhe Hou contributed equally to this work.

Online First Date: 16 May 2022 Issue Date: 20 September 2022

Cite this article:

Tong Xing,Changqing Dong,Xiaodong Wang, et al. Biodegradable, superhydrophobic walnut wood membrane for the separation of oil/water mixtures[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(9): 1377-1386.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-022-2157-z
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2022/V16/I9/1377

Fig.1 Macroscopic features and characterization of the microscopic structures of the wood samples: SEM images of longitudinal sections of (a) natural walnut wood, (b) WA, and (c) AW at different degrees of magnification.

Fig.2 Macroscopic features and characterization of the microscopic structures of the modified wood samples: SEM images of longitudinal sections of (a) PW substrates, (b) WA substrates, and (c) AW substrates at different degrees of magnification.

Fig.3 SEM-EDS images of (a) the PW and (b) modified PW for the elements C, O, and Si.

Fig.4 (a, b) FTIR spectra of pristine walnut wood, WA, and AW; (c–e) FTIR spectra of substrate and modified samples of pristine walnut wood, WA, and AW; (f) XPS spectra.

Fig.5 (a) Fm and (b) Rm histogram of samples PEG, PAG, and CS of PW, WA, and AW.

Fig.6 The effect of (a) time and (b) abrasion on contact angle for modified samples.

Fig.7 Effect of abrasion on contact angle on modified samples with sandpaper (240 mesh) served as an abrasion surface.

Fig.8 The contact angles of the droplet on modified samples before and after immersion in HCl solution (pH = 3 and 5), NaCl solution (pH = 7), and NaOH solution (pH = 9 and 11) for (a) 12 h and (b) 24 h.

Fig.9 The self-cleaning process before (a) and after (b) dripping water droplets on the samples: (i) PW, (ii) modified PW, and (iii) modified AW films.

Fig.10 The oil/water separation experiment: (a) separation process with the single superhydrophobic film (left) and two cross-placed superhydrophobic films (right), (b) circulation area of the pores, and (c) emulsions before and after separation.

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