Superwettable cellulose acetate-based nanofiber membrane with spider-web structure for highly efficient oily water purification

Doudou Ning; Zhaoqing Lu; Cuiyu Tian; Ning Yan; Fan Xie; Nan Li; Li Hua

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126865

Superwettable cellulose acetate-based nanofiber membrane with spider-web structure for highly efficient oily water purification

Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 Dec 31;253(Pt 3):126865. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126865. Epub 2023 Sep 17.

Authors

Doudou Ning¹, Zhaoqing Lu², Cuiyu Tian¹, Ning Yan³, Fan Xie¹, Nan Li¹, Li Hua¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Papermaking Technology and Specialty Paper Development, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Light Chemistry Engineering Education, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi'an 710021, China.
² College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Papermaking Technology and Specialty Paper Development, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Light Chemistry Engineering Education, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi'an 710021, China. Electronic address: luzhaoqing302@163.com.
³ College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Papermaking Technology and Specialty Paper Development, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Light Chemistry Engineering Education, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi'an 710021, China; State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, No. 381, Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640, China.

PMID: 37717870
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126865

Abstract

Electrospinning nanofibers membrane has received much attention to remove the insoluble oil from the sewage, while the poor mechanical strength and low oil/water separation efficiency of membranes limit their practical application. Here, we prepared a superwettable deacetylated cellulose acetate (d-CA)-based electrospinning nanofibers membrane simply dipped by bacterial cellulose (BC) and cross-linked with citric acid (CCA) to construct the spider-web structure spontaneously. Compared with the pristine d-CA membrane, the obtained d-CA/BC@CCA membrane exhibits the remarkable oil/water separation performance. The flux and separation efficiency of n-hexane/water emulsion without (SFE) and with (SSE) emulsifier for d-CA/BC@CCA membrane are 9364 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1, 98.34 % and 5479 L·m^-2·h^-1·bar^-1, 99.39 %, respectively, which are mainly attributed to the improved hydrophilicity of its surface and the decreased pore sizes caused by the unique spider-web structure. In addition, d-CA/BC@CCA membrane also possesses the outstanding mechanical properties, the better cycle stability, as well as the excellent durability. This study provides a novel strategy for the construction of the high-performance oil/water separation membrane.

Keywords: Oil/water separation; Spider-web structure; Superwettability.

MeSH terms

Animals
Cellulose / chemistry
Membranes, Artificial
Nanofibers* / chemistry
Oils
Spiders*
Water Purification*

Substances

acetylcellulose
Membranes, Artificial
Oils
Cellulose