Durable, flexible, and super-hydrophobic wood membrane with nanopore by molecular cross-linking for efficient separation of stabilized water/oil emulsions

Large amount of oily wastewater discharged from domestic sources and industrial has caused lots of pollution to our surrounding. Thus, searching effective and eco-friendly ways for separation of stabilized oil/water emulsions is urgent and highly desirable. Among various methods, membrane with special wettability is an ideal choice for the efficient treatment of oil/water emulsions owing to its low energy consumption and cost. However, it remains a great challenge to develop super-wettable membranes using green and inexpensive materials to realize durability, easy fabrication and scale-up. To address this issue, a highly flexible, durable, robust, and super-hydrophobic polydivinylbenzene (PDVB)-wood membrane with hydrophobic-nanopores is developed by the surface coating of cross-linked PDVB on the porous wood. The as-produced PDVB-wood membrane shows excellent flexibility, durability, chemical resistance and possesses above 99.98% separation efficiency for surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions. Furthermore, the PDVB-wood membrane also performs excellent recyclability with separation efficiency up to 99.98% after 20 separation cycles. The synergistic effect of the super-hydrophobicity and nanopores contributes to the high separation performance. With its excellent durability, easy scale up, easy fabrication, inexpensive, and green regeneration, we envision that this functional biomass-derived membrane could be used as a substitute for filter membrane in environmental restoration.