Selective separation of oil and water with mesh membranes by capillarity

Yuanlie Yu; Hua Chen; Yun Liu; Vincent S J Craig; Zhiping Lai

doi:10.1016/j.cis.2016.05.008

Selective separation of oil and water with mesh membranes by capillarity

Adv Colloid Interface Sci. 2016 Sep:235:46-55. doi: 10.1016/j.cis.2016.05.008. Epub 2016 May 28.

Authors

Yuanlie Yu¹, Hua Chen², Yun Liu³, Vincent S J Craig⁴, Zhiping Lai⁵

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Membrane and Porous Materials Center, Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
² Centre for Advanced Microscopy, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
³ Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
⁴ Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Electronic address: vince.craig@anu.edu.au.
⁵ Advanced Membrane and Porous Materials Center, Division of Physical Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: zhiping.lai@kaust.edu.sa.

PMID: 27246717
DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2016.05.008

Abstract

The separation of oil and water from wastewater generated in the oil-production industries, as well as in frequent oil spillage events, is important in mitigating severe environmental and ecological damage. Additionally, a wide arrange of industrial processes require oils or fats to be removed from aqueous systems. The immiscibility of oil and water allows for the wettability of solid surfaces to be engineered to achieve the separation of oil and water through capillarity. Mesh membranes with extreme, selective wettability can efficiently remove oil or water from oil/water mixtures through a simple filtration process using gravity. A wide range of different types of mesh membranes have been successfully rendered with extreme wettability and applied to oil/water separation in the laboratory. These mesh materials have typically shown good durability, stability as well as reusability, which makes them promising candidates for an ever widening range of practical applications.

Keywords: Capillarity; Mesh membranes; Oil/water separation; Superhydrophobicity; Superoleophobicity.

Publication types

Review