Electrospun polyethersulfone@MOF composite membranes for air cleaning and oil-water separation

Filtration and separation materials have gradually become a research hotspot on account of the increasing attention paid to the global environmental pollution problem. However, most filtration and separation materials can not balance the contradiction between high filtration & separation efficiency and its reusability. In this work, we report the successful fabrication of polyethersulfone@MOF (PESU@MOF) membranes using electrospinning with 1.22 & PLUSMN; 0.55 & mu;m diameter, owning excellent mechanical property and high filtration efficiency (>99 %). For heat, acid and alkalic condition treatment, the stress of PESU@MOF-0.1 membrane slightly decreases to 0.50 & PLUSMN; 0.01 MPa under heating 12 h at 200 celcius. At the same time, the stress of PESU@MOF-0.1 membrane declines dramatically after treated by 1.0 mol/L HCl and NaOH, respectively, for 4 h. Moreover, compared with PESU membranes, quality factor (QF) value (0.12 Pa- 1) of PESU@MOF-0.075 membrane increases by nearly 134.1 %, exhibiting excellent filtration efficiency. The oil-water separation time of PESU@MOF membrane increases from 44 s to 86 s with the increase of MOF contents. At 20 cyclic filtration process, the separation time is a slight decrease from 29 s to 40 s. The nature of PESU based materials, the effective filtration and separation property, and its reusability suggest the herein engineered membranes have great potential for practical applications in air filtration and oil-water separation fields.

Automated summary

In this study, a polyethersulfone@MOF (PESU@MOF) membrane with excellent mechanical property and high filtration efficiency (>99%) was successfully fabricated. Compared with traditional membrane materials, the PESU@MOF membrane showed a significant increase of 134.1% in the quality factor value, indicating excellent filtration performance. Moreover, the membrane exhibited good acid and alkali resistance as well as reusability, suggesting great potential for practical applications in air filtration and oil-water separation fields.