An anti-abrasion sandwich structured membrane for highly efficient oil/water separation

Animal oils would not only pollute the water but also block the sewer. Using hydrophilic membrane is an effective approach for oil/water separation. However, abrasion would cause the damage of the membrane and shorten their service life. In this work, we prepared a sandwich structured oil/water separation membrane (SSM) with two layers of cotton fabric and a core layer of PAM modified stainless-steel mesh via a cost-effective and facile process. The as-prepared membrane can selectively separate water from oil/water mixtures with high efficiency, high flux (beyond 6000 L m(-2) h(-1)), and good reusability. Moreover, as compared with hydrogel coated mesh, the SSM exhibited good abrasion resistance, which would effectively improve the usability in real scenarios. More importantly, the SSM has successfully blocked the oil in a simulated sewer and a real sewer in the kitchen, which will help prevent sewer blockage.