Flexible Mesoporous Membranes with Revivability and Superwettability for Sustainable Oil-Water Separation

Separating emulsified oil-water emulsions is still a significant challenge owing to the serious fouling and low permeation flux of the membrane. Here, a flexible mesoporous TiO2-SiO2 composite membrane with revivability and super-wettability was prepared via a sol electrospinning followed by calcination. The resulting membrane features abundant hydroxyl groups on the nanofibers, which can serve as the hydrogen bond acceptors to bind water molecules, forming a water cushion for oil repellence. It is capable of efficiently separating oil-in-water emulsion with a very high permeation flux of 3159 Lm(-2) h(-1). and a high separation efficiency of 99.94%. More importantly, the fouled membrane can be totally reclaimed with its original superwettability and separation performance by high-temperature treatment within five cycles. We believe that the provided strategy on tackling membrane fouling is highly effective, presenting a promising perspective in sustainable oil-water separation.