A versatile, highly effective nanofibrous separation membrane

Although a wide range of fibrous filters are available for diverse filtration tasks to separate solid or oil particles from a gas or liquid medium, a single filter seldom shows versatile separation capability to perform multi-separation tasks to separate both types of particles from different media. Herein, we report a novel nanofibrous membrane that can separate oil/water emulsions (efficiency over 99.9%) at a flux as high as 4082 L m(-2) h(-1) as well as oil aerosol droplets (efficiency of 99.98% for oil droplets sized similar to 330 nm) and solid aerosol particles from air (efficiency 85-99%) and micro-sized solid particles from water (efficiency >95%). The fibrous membrane is reusable to accomplish cross-medium filtration tasks. This versatile, highly efficient separation capability originates from the fine fibrous structure and an amphibious superhydrophilic-superoleophobic surface feature. This may be useful for the development of advanced technologies for various environmental protection applications.