Green Fabrication of Underwater Superoleophobic Biopolymeric Nanofibrous Membranes for Effective Oil–Water Separation
Subin Oh , Junsik Bang , Hyoung-Joon Jin , Hyo Won Kwak
Advanced Fiber Materials ›› 2023, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (2) : 603 -616.
Green Fabrication of Underwater Superoleophobic Biopolymeric Nanofibrous Membranes for Effective Oil–Water Separation
Currently, most of the materials for oil–water separation membranes are limited to fluorine-based polymers with low surface energy. However, it is not biodegradable and requires large amounts of organic and toxic solvents in the membrane manufacturing process. Therefore, interest in the development of a new eco-friendly oil–water separation membrane that does not cause secondary pollution and exhibits selective wettability characteristics in water or oil is increasing. The biopolymeric nanofibrous membranes inspired by fish skin can provide specific underwater oleophobicity, which is effective for excellent oil–water separation efficiency and prevention of secondary contamination. Fish gelatin, which is highly soluble in water and has a low gelation temperature, can be electrospun in an aqueous solution and has the same polar functional groups as the hydrophilic mucilage of fish skin. In addition, the micro/nanostructure of fish skin, which induces superoleophobicity in water, introduces a bead-on-string structure using the Rayleigh instability of electrospinning. The solubility of fish gelatin in water was removed using an eco-friendly crosslinking method using reducing sugars. Fish skin-mimicking materials successfully separated suspended oil and emulsified oil, with a maximum flux of 2086 Lm−2 h−1 and a separation efficiency of more than 99%. The proposed biopolymeric nanofibrous membranes use fish gelatin, which can be extracted from fish waste and has excellent biodegradability with excellent oil–water separation performance. In addition, polymer material processing, including membrane manufacturing and crosslinking, can be realized through eco-friendly processes. Therefore, fish skin-inspired biopolymeric membrane is expected to be a promising candidate for a sustainable and effective oil–water separation membrane in the future.
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy(20018540)
National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF-2021R1A4A2001403)
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