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A General Strategy for the Separation of Immiscible Organic Liquids by Manipulating the Surface Tensions of Nanofibrous Membranes
Author(s) -
Wang Li,
Zhao Yong,
Tian Ye,
Jiang Lei
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201506866
Subject(s) - membrane , wetting , chemical engineering , extraction (chemistry) , contact angle , selectivity , surface roughness , membrane technology , materials science , separation process , chemistry , organic chemistry , chromatography , composite material , catalysis , biochemistry , engineering
Oil/water separation membranes with different wettability towards water are attractive for their economic efficiency and convenience. The key factor for the separation process is the roughness‐enhanced wettability of membranes based on the intrinsic wetting threshold (IWT) of water, that is, the limitation of the wettability caused by hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. However, the separation of organic liquids (OLs) remains a challenge. Herein, we manipulate the surface tensions of nanofibrous membranes to lie between the IWTs of the two OLs to be separated so that the nanofibrous membranes can be endowed with superlyophobicity and superlyophilicity for the two liquids, and thus lead to successful separation. Our investigations provide a general strategy to separate any immiscible liquids efficiently, and may lead to the development of membranes with a large capacity, high flux, and high selectivity for organic reactions or liquid extraction in chemical engineering.