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Modified ceramic membranes for low fouling separation of water-in-oil emulsions

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Abstract

Growing environmental concerns have fueled the need for efficient separation of oil–water mixtures. Membranes that separate oil–water mixture based on contrasting wetting properties have recently received significant attention. Here, hydrophobic and oleophilic ceramic membranes have been successfully prepared for the application of water-in-oil emulsion separation. The membranes were fabricated by modification the ZrO2 membrane with hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS). SEM, EDS, and pore size measurements depict that HDTMS has been grafted onto the ZrO2 membrane surface without changing the membrane morphology and pore structure. Contact angle measurements confirm that HDTMS modification improves the membrane hydrophobicity and oleophilicity. The modified membrane was thermally stable to 220 °C, and had good chemical stability in a series of organic solvents, even under high-speed scouring. The antifouling performance of the modified membrane was assessed via the filtration of water-in-oil emulsions. The modified membranes showed higher oil flux and higher water rejection compared with the unmodified membranes. The modified membrane can separate all the water droplets from the water-in-oil emulsions. The hydrophobicity of the grafted HDTMS chains was considered to be responsible for reducing the water droplet adsorption on the membrane surface.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support of the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BE2009677), the Scientific and Technological Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (KJ1500932), and the New Teacher Foundation of Chongqing University of Technology (2012ZD23).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, 400054, People’s Republic of China

    Nengwen Gao, Xuejun Quan, Yongwei Cai & Dewen Zhou

  2. State Key Laboratory of Materials-oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210009, People’s Republic of China

    Nengwen Gao & Yiqun Fan

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  1. Nengwen Gao
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  2. Yiqun Fan
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  3. Xuejun Quan
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  4. Yongwei Cai
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  5. Dewen Zhou
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Correspondence to Nengwen Gao or Yiqun Fan.

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Gao, N., Fan, Y., Quan, X. et al. Modified ceramic membranes for low fouling separation of water-in-oil emulsions. J Mater Sci 51, 6379–6388 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-9934-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-9934-3

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