An antifouling catechol/chitosan-modified polyvinylidene fluoride membrane for sustainable oil-in-water emulsions separation

Highlights

• Underwater superoleophobic membrane was fabricated by deposition of catechol/chitosan.

• The membrane had ultrahigh pure water flux and was stable under harsh pH conditions.

• The membrane exhibited remarkable antifouling property in O/W emulsion separation.

• The hydration layer on the membrane surface prevented oil droplets adhesion.

Abstract

Low-pressure membrane filtrations are considered as effective technologies for sustainable oil/water separation. However, conventional membranes usually suffer from severe pore clogging and surface fouling, and thus, novel membranes with superior wettability and antifouling features are urgently required. Herein, we report a facile green approach for the development of an underwater superoleophobic microfiltration membrane via one-step oxidant-induced ultrafast co-deposition of naturally available catechol/chitosan on a porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) substrate. Membrane morphology and surface chemistry were studied using a series of characterization techniques. The as-prepared membrane retained the original pore structure due to the ultrathin and uniform catechol/chitosan coating. It exhibited ultrahigh pure water permeability and robust chemical stability under harsh pH conditions. Moreover, the catechol/chitosan hydrophilic coating on the membrane surface acting as an energetic barrier for oil droplets could minimize oil adhesion on the surface, which endowed the membrane with remarkable antifouling property and reusability in a cyclic oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion separation. The modified membrane exhibited a competitive flux of ~428 L/(m²·h·bar) after three filtration cycles, which was 70% higher than that of the pristine PVDF membrane. These results suggest that the novel underwater superoleophobic membrane can potentially be used for sustainable O/W emulsions separation, and the proposed green facile modification approach can also be applied to other water-remediation materials considering its low cost and simplicity.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Antifouling / Catechol/chitosan co-deposition / Oil-in-water emulsions separation / Underwater superoleophobic

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51808564 and 51878675), the State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes (Tiangong University, Grant No. M1-201803) and the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFE0114300). The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1355-5 and is accessible for authorized users.

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