(382c) Mechanism and Applications of Membranes with Special Wettability

The separation of liquid mixtures has a huge potential in industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy production, and wastewater treatment. Membrane-based separation is one of the most promising techniques for liquid-liquid separation due to its high selectivity and permeability, lower energy consumption, and smaller footprint. However, some challenges for conventional membrane separation are membrane fouling from oily organic matters and external driving force such as pressure. Recently, membrane with novel wettability has received increasingly extensive attention. Materials with opposing affinities towards different liquids, i.e., hydrophilic/oleophobic, or hydrophobic/oleophilic, can be used to remove one phase from the liquid mixtures. Here, we have taken advantage of a hydrophobic/oleophilic perfluorocarbon coating to modify the surface of glass membranes, and the effect of intrinsic surface roughness of glass membranes will be discussed. The as-prepared membrane can efficiently separate oil-water mixtures and other chemical reaction systems, which is governed by gravity and capillary forces, and there is no decline in filtration flux and external energy applied. Our work here has the potential to facilitate the industrial application of membranes with special wettability in various kinds of chemical production.