有效油-水分离的水-响应膜Hygro-responsive membranes for effect.docxVIP

Hygro-responsive membranes for effective oil-water separation 有效油■水别离的水■响应膜 Kota, A. K. et al. Nat. Commun. 3:1025 doi: 10.1038/2027 (2012). There is a critical need for new energy-efficient solutions to separate oil-water mixtures, especially those stabilized by surfactants. Traditional membrane-based separation technologies are energy-intensive and limited, either by fouling or by the inability of a single membrane to separate all types of oil-water mixtures. Here we report membranes with hygro-responsive surfaces, which are both superhydrophilic and superoleophobic, in air and under water. Our membranes can separate, for the first time, a range of different oil-water mixtures in a single-unit operation, with 99.9% separation efficiency, by using the difference in capillary forces acting on the two phases. Our separation methodology is solely gravity-driven and consequently is expected to be highly energy-efficient. We anticipate that our separation methodology will have numerous applications, including the clean-up of oil spills, wastewater treatment, fuel purification and the separation of commercially relevant emulsions. 迫切需要新的别离油-水混合物的节能解决方案，尤其由外表活性剂稳定的混合物。传 统膜-基别离技术是能源一密集型，且受到污染或单一膜无法别离所有类型油一水混合物的 限制。这里报告了空气和水下超亲水和超疏油外表的水-响应外表膜。首次采用作用于两相 互的毛细管力差，我们的膜可在一个单元操作中别离一系列不同的油水混合物，别离效率 99.9%o别离方法完全为重力驱动，因此，预计会非常节能。预计我们的别离方法将有许 很多应用，包括石油泄漏清理、废水处理、燃料净化和相关商业乳化的别离。 Recent events including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have highlighted the difficulty of effective oil-water separation. Efficient, cost-effective processes for oil-water separation, especially in the presence of dispersants (or surfactants), are greatly desired 1. Surfactant-stabilized mixtures of oil and water are classified?, in terms of the diameter (d) of the dispersed phase, as free oil and water if d 150(im9 a dispersion if 20(im d 150 or an emulsion if d 20 pim. Conventional gravity separators and skimming techniques are incapable of separating emulsions2. Membrane-based tech