Underoil Superhydrophilic Metal Felt Fabricated by Modifying Ultrathin Fumed Silica Coatings for the Separation of Water-in-Oil Emulsions

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c03801
• Publication Date: 2020-05-20T11:03:43Z
• Authors: Chaolang Chen; Shuai Chen; Lei Chen; Yadong Yu; Ding Weng; Awais Mahmood; Jiadao Wang; Ivan P. Parkin; Claire J. Carmalt
• Keywords: Superhydrophilicity; Fumed silica

Although various superhydrophobic/superoleophilic porous materials have been developed and successfully applied to separate water-in-oil emulsions through the size-sieving mechanism, separation performance is restricted by their nanoscale pore size severely. In this study, wettability of underoil water on fumed silica was experimentally observed, underlying mechanism investigated carrying out theoretical analysis molecular dynamic (MD) simulations. Further, we present a novel, facile, an inexpensive technique fabricate superhydrophilic metal felt with microscale pores for using SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) as building blocks. The as-prepared coating closed-packed ultrathin (the thickness approximately hundreds nanometers), well capable being coated complex structures without blocking its pores. could adsorb droplets directly from oil, which endowed it ability both surfactant-free surfactant-stabilized high efficiency up 99.7% even though larger than that emulsified droplet. filtration flux span 80-stabilized emulsion ∼4000 L·m–2·h–1. Its better most other traditional membranes superwettable used emulsions. Moreover, retained outstanding after 30 cycles use, demonstrated excellent reusability durability. Additionally, distinctive superhydrophilicity endued superior antifouling properties toward crude oil. Overall, study not only provides new perspective separating but also gives universal approach develop unique surfaces.