Polyphenylene sulfide microfiber membrane with superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity for oil/water separation

To dispose the increasing oil pollution, tremendous effective ways have been proposed to deal with the oil/water mixture. In this study, polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) microfiber membrane was firstly employed as the substrate for separation. Polyethylene wax (PEW) powder and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ultrafine powder were simply and effectively introduced on the PPS membrane by employing one-step spray-coating method. The as-prepared membrane displayed excellent oil affinity and water-repellent behaviors. Significantly, the obtained membrane showed long-term stability under various extreme conditions such as strong acid, alkali, salt solutions and high temperature. Moreover, this membrane could maintain high oil flux (above 3500 L/m2 h) and separation efficiency (above 98%) even after 20 cycles of oil/water separation and isolate a wide range of oil/water mixture effectively. The fabrication of superhydrophobic and superoleophilic PPS microfiber membrane presented here can be easily scaled up on a large scale, which will provide attractive potential in practical oil/water separation.