Fabrication of Manganese Oxide-silica Based Functional Polymer Composite Membranes and Their Environmental Application

Oil-water emulsion separation is a complicated task and recently oil-water spills made it crucial to find a solution to resolve this unfavorable environmental concern. Membrane separation is economical, environmentally safe, and operationally feasible separation process among different methods adopted so far. Keeping this in view neat polysulfone and manganese oxide silica composite membrane were synthesized. The prepared Mn3O4, mesoporous silica, Mn3O4@SiO2, neat and fabricated PSF membranes were thoroughly characterized by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric, and differential scanning calorimetry, tunneling electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The solvent content, porosity, surface behavior, thermal, and mechanical properties of the membranes were also studied. The increase in the concentration of nanofiller increases the solvent interaction, porosity, thermal stability, and mechanical strength. Amongst all 5 wt.% composite membrane have greater oil/water separation capacity due to greater amount of nanofiller and high porosity. Facile tuning of properties during fabrication process makes these composite membranes a potential candidate to address the oil/water pollution problem of important environmental concern.

Automated summary

The study focused on the synthesis of neat polysulfone and manganese oxide silica composite membrane for oil-water emulsion separation. Characterization of the membranes showed that 5 wt.% composite membrane had the greatest oil/water separation capacity due to higher nanofiller content and porosity. These composite membranes have the potential to address the important environmental concern of oil/water pollution by facile tuning of properties during fabrication process.