(510b) Naa Zeolite-Coated Meshes with Tunable Hydrophilicity for Oil-Water Separation

Ghader Mahmodi ^a, Shailesh Dangwal ^a, Payam Zarrintaj^a, Mengfan Zhu ^b, Yu Mao ^b, David N. Mcllroy ^c, Mohammad Reza Saeb ^d, Vahid Vatanpour ^e, Joshua D. Ramsey ^a, and Seok-Jhin Kim ^a*

^a School of Chemical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 420 Engineering North, Stillwater, OK, 74078, United States

^b Department of Biosystems and Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 213 Agricultural Hall, Stillwater, OK, 74078, United States

^c Department of Physics, Oklahoma State University, 145 Physical Sciences Bldg., Stillwater, OK, 74078, United States

^d Department of Resin and Additive, Institute for Color Science and Technology, P.O. Box 16656118481, Tehran, Iran

^e Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

NaA zeolite was fabricated on a stainless steel mesh by secondary growth method through optimizing aluminum/silicon ratio (ASR) to effectively separate oily water. The NaA zeolite-coated mesh with the highest superoleophobic property had an ASR of 1.21 and an oil contact angle of 163.7^o. The highest membrane flux obtained was 13,513 L m^-2 h^-1 for an ASR = 0.91 and the highest separation efficiency was 99.5% for an ASR = 1.21. NaA zeolite meshes were recycled and reused for 15 cycles by rinsing the membrane with DI water between each test. The oil rejection rate of the mesh for ASR = 0 decreased approximately 2.7% after 4 cycles of separation, but the oil rejection rate of the meshes for ASRs = 0.3-182 did not change with 4 cycles of oil water separation, which is attributed to the uniformity of the NaA zeolite coating and its thermal stability. NaA zeolite meshes were also used for separation of various oils, such as n-hexane, mineral oil, olive oil, and diesel. The oil rejection rates were higher than 98.3% in all cases, which demonstrates that NaA zeolite mesh is very promising technology for oil/water separation applications.