Under-oil superhydrophilic wetted PVDF electrospun modified membrane for continuous gravitational oil/water separation with outstanding flux

M. Obaid, Hend Omar Mohamed, Ahmed S. Yasin, Mohamed A. Yassin, Olfat A. Fadali*, Hak Yong Kim, Nasser A.M. Barakat

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    83 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Water in the world is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity and the membrane technology is a most effective strategy to address this issue. However, the fouling and low flux of the polymeric membrane remains the big challenges. Novel modified Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane was introduced, in this work, using a novel treatment technique for an electrospun polymeric PVDF membrane to be used in oil/water separation systems. The Characterizations of the modified and pristine membranes showed distinct changes in the phase and crystal structure of the membrane material as well as the wettability. The modification process altered the surface morphology and structure of the membrane by forming hydrophilic microspheres on the membrane surface. Therefore, the proposed treatment converts the membrane from highly hydrophobic to be a superhydrophilic under-oil when wetted with water. Accordingly, in the separation of oil/water mixtures, the modified membrane can achieve an outstanding flux of 20664 L/m2. hr under gravity, which is higher than the pristine membrane by infinite times. Moreover, in the separation of the emulsion, a high flux of 2727 L/m2. h was achieved. The results exhibited that the modified membrane can treat a huge amount of oily water with a minimal energy consumption. The corresponding separation efficiencies of both of oil/water mixtures and emulsion are more than 99%. The achieved characteristics for the modified and pristine membranes could be exploited to design a novel continuous system for oil/water separation with an excellent efficiency.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)524-535
    Number of pages12
    JournalWater research
    Volume123
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2017

    Keywords

    • Electrospinning
    • Membranes
    • Oil water separation
    • Super-hydrophilicity
    • Surface chemistry

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Environmental Engineering
    • Civil and Structural Engineering
    • Ecological Modeling
    • Water Science and Technology
    • Waste Management and Disposal
    • Pollution

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