Collagen fiber membrane-derived chemically and mechanically durable superhydrophobic membrane for high-performance emulsion separation

Developing high-performance separation membrane with good durability is a highly desired while challenging issue. Herein, we reported the successful fabrication of chemically and mechanically durable superhydrophobic membrane that was prepared by embedding UiO-66 as size-sieving sites within the supramolecular fiber structure of collagen fiber membrane (CFM), followed by the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating. The as-prepared CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membrane featured capillary effect-enhanced separation flux and homogeneous porous channels guaranteed high separation efficiency. When utilized as double-layer separation membranes, this new type of composite membranes separated various surfactant stabilized water-in-oil microemulsions and nanoemulsions, with the separation efficiency high up to 99.993 % and the flux as high as 973.3 L m− 2 h− 1. Compared with commercial polytetrafluoro ethylene (PTFE) membrane, the advantage of the double-layer CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membranes in separation flux was evident, which exhibited one order of magnitude higher than that of commercial PTFE membrane. The CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membrane was acid-alkali tolerant, UV-aging resistant and reusable for emulsion separation. Notably, the CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membrane was mechanically durable against strong mechanical abrasion, which was still capable of separating diverse water-in-oil emulsions after the abrasion with sandpaper and assembled as double-layer separation membranes. We anticipate that the combination of CFM and metal organic frameworks (MOFs) is an effective strategy for fabricating high-performance separation membrane with high mechanical and chemical durability.