Fabrication of a superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic stainless steel mesh for oil/water separation with ultrahigh flux

doi:10.1007/s11705-022-2170-2

Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (1) : 46-55 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2170-2

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Fabrication of a superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic stainless steel mesh for oil/water separation with ultrahigh flux

Jiawei Wang, Jie Hu(

), Junjie Cheng, Zefei Huang, Baoqian Ye

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China

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Abstract

Because of the increasing amount of oily wastewater produced each day, it is important to develop superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic oil/water separation membranes with ultrahigh flux and high separation efficiency. In this paper, a superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic N-isopropylacrylamide-coated stainless steel mesh was prepared through a simple and convenient graft polymerization approach. The obtained mesh was able to separate oil/water mixtures only by gravity. In addition, the mesh showed high-efficiency separation ability (99.2%) and ultrahigh flux (235239 L∙m^–2∙h^–1). Importantly, due to the complex cross-linked bilayer structure, the prepared mesh exhibited good recycling performance and chemical stability in highly saline, alkaline and acidic environments.

Keywords oil/water separation N-isopropylacrylamide stainless steel mesh ultrahigh flux

Corresponding Author(s): Jie Hu

About author:

Changjian Wang and Zhiying Yang contributed equally to this work.

Online First Date: 29 May 2022 Issue Date: 21 February 2023

Cite this article:

Jiawei Wang,Jie Hu,Junjie Cheng, et al. Fabrication of a superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic stainless steel mesh for oil/water separation with ultrahigh flux[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2023, 17(1): 46-55.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-022-2170-2
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2023/V17/I1/46

Fig.1 (a) Schematic illustrating the preparation of the SSM-PNIPAM membrane and schematic diagram of oil/water mixture separation; (b) The surface modification of each prepared mesh.

Fig.2 (a, b, d, e) SEM morphologies and (c, f) EDS spectra of SSM and SSM-TiO₂, (g) Raman spectra of SSM and SSM-TiO₂.

Fig.3 (a, b) SEM images and (c) EDS spectra of KH-570@SSM.

Fig.4 (a, b, c) SEM images and EDS spectra of SSM-NIPAM; (d) FTIR spectra of SSM-NIPAM.

Fig.5 (a, b, c, d) Images of WCAs on the surface of various meshes, (e) UOCAs with different oils and WCAs on the surface of SSM-PNIPAM, and (f, g) images of the dynamic underwater oil contacting process of KH-570@SSM and SSM-PNIPAM.

Tab.1 Comparison of the separation properties of various superhydrophilic membranes.

Fig.6 (a) Photographs of the immiscible oil/water mixture separation process, (b) schematic diagram of oil/water mixture separation, and (c) separation efficiency and water fluxes of SSM-PNIPAM with various oil/water mixtures.

Fig.7 (a) UWOCAs and (b) separation efficiencies and water fluxes of SSM-PNIPAM after soaking in 1 mol·L^?1 HCl, 1 mol·L^?1 NaOH and saturated NaCl for 48 h; (c) separation efficiencies and water fluxes of SSM-PNIPAM and separation times, (d) an image of the UOCA of the mesh after cyclic separation, (e) the SEM image of SSM-PNIPAM after 20 cycles of hexane/water separation, and (f) an oil (red) intrusion pressure of SSM-PNIPAM.

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