Selective separation of oil and water with mesh membranes by capillarity

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

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

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. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)46-55
Number of pages10
JournalAdvances in Colloid and Interface Science
Volume235
DOIs
StatePublished - May 29 2016

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