Modified superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic mullite fiber-based porous ceramic for oil-water separation

Abstract This work proposed a new strategy for preparing a superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic material based on mullite fiber-based porous ceramic as the matrix and polyethylenepolyamine (PEPA) with high surface energy as the coating material. The PEPA-DA (PDA) coating used as the superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic membrane was fabricated via the bionic surface grafting technology. Dopamine (DA) was used as a binder to graft PEPA onto the surface and into the pores of the matrix material to in situ form a PDA coating that has a multi-level structure. The prepared mullite ceramic/PDA coating could be used to separate oil/water mixtures with short separation time and high efficiency. Consequently, the mullite fiber-based porous ceramic was considered to be a novel substitutional matrix material for preparing the super-wetting membrane.