Cell Membrane Mimetic Coating for Excellent Antifouling, Antibacterial Corrosion, and Self-Cleaning Separation of Massive Oil-Water Mixtures

Massive oil-water mixtures produced from both industries and frequent oil spill incidents have threatened water ecosystems. A highly efficient separation membrane with ultrahigh filtration flux and excellent antifouling performance is created to deal with oil-water mixtures. The filtration membrane is fabricated by anchoring a phosphorylcholine copolymer (PMEN) on polydopamine (PDA)-precoated stainless steel mesh (SSM) surfaces, forming a durable cell outer membrane mimetic coating. The as-prepared SSM/PDA/PMEN membranes exhibit superhydrophilicity and high separation efficiency (>= 99.98%) for different oil-water mixtures. Furthermore, the water flux of separating 30 v/v% crude oil-water mixture can reach as high as 70 000 L m(-2) h(-1) and remains higher than 30 000 L m(-2) h(-1) without any additional washing during 100 cycles of successive separations in a dead-end filtration device. More importantly, substantial corrosion of stainless steel surfaces by bacteria is prevented on the cell membrane mimetic coating by its excellent antibacterial adhesion performance. These unprecedented underwater anticrude oil-fouling and antibacterial-corrosion properties, as well as the ultrahigh flux and high separation efficiency of SSM/PDA/PMEN membranes, are highly promising in the cleanup of massive oily water and oil spills in the near future.

Automated summary

A highly efficient separation membrane with ultrahigh filtration flux and excellent antifouling performance has been developed to deal with massive oil-water mixtures and oil spills. The membrane shows high separation efficiency and unprecedented underwater anticrude oil-fouling and antibacterial-corrosion properties.