Fabrication of hyperbranched polyether demulsifier modified PVDF membrane for demulsification and separation of oil-in-water emulsion

Publication date: Available online 17 February 2020Source: Journal of Membrane ScienceAuthor(s): Can Xu, Feng Yan, Mingxia Wang, Hao Yan, Zhenyu Cui, Jianxin Li, Benqiao HeAbstractMembrane-based treatment for oil-in-water emulsion remains a significant challenge. The main difficulties are to solve membrane fouling and to destroy the emulsion system to achieve high-efficiency emulsion separation. Herein, chemical demulsification combined with membrane separation technology was proposed for oil/water separation from the emulsion. A hyperbranched phenol-amine resin block polyether demulsifier (AE2311) was grafted onto surface of styrene-co-maleic anhydride (SMA) blend polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane by alcoholysis reaction. The successful preparation of the demulsifier modified PVDF membrane was characterized by X - rayphotoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The obtained AE2311@SMA/PVDF membrane with grafting time of 9 h exhibited superhydrophilic (water contact angle of 0°) and underwater superoleophobic properties (underwater oil contact angle over 150°). The modified membrane can break the O/W emulsion and allow water to pass through. The separation efficiency for dichloroethane-in-water, kerosene-in-water, toluene-in-water and petroleum ether-in-water emulsions were all recorded over 99.0%, which indicates that the modif...
Source: Journal of Membrane Science - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research