Hydrogen-bonded methylcellulose/poly(acrylic acid) complex membrane for oil-water separation

The contamination of water with oil spills and organic pollutants have become a global environmental challenge which requires urgent solutions. In this work, membranes for oil-water separation are fabricated by forming a reusable and stable layer with methylcellulose (MC) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) on stainless-steel mesh (SSM) via a chemical bath deposition method. Due to the interactions between the carboxyl group (-COOH) in PAA and the hydroxyl group (-OH) in MC through hydrogen bonding, MC/PAA complex membranes will be formed on the surface of SSM. The MC/PAA membrane is then modified by trichloromethylsilane (TCMS) to obtain the hydrophobicity and oleophilicity. This design can adequately repel water and let oils penetrate through the membrane freely. A high flux of 1055 L m(-2) h(-1) and an excellent separation efficiency of 99.9% are achieved when using the as-prepared membrane to separate sunflower oil/water mixture. This facile and low-cost method for fabricating oil-water separators has potential to be widely used in the fields of oil and petroleum industries.