A Dually Charged Membrane for Seawater Utilization: Combining Marine Pollution Remediation and Desalination by Simultaneous Removal of Polluted Dispersed Oil, Surfactants, and Ions

Shortage of freshwater and deterioration of the marine environment have a serious effect on the human body and ecological environment. Here, we demonstrated a facile way to prepare a multiple-target superwetting porous material to obtain available water without cumbersome steps. Through the facile immersion and hydrothermal method, a charge-enhanced membrane material combining superwettability, electrostatic interaction, and the steric effect is prepared. Such a material breaks through the limitations of single size sieving and has a universal effect on different kinds of contaminants with accurate wettability manipulation and fluid separation control. The protonation and deprotonation of active carboxyl groups at the novel created solid/liquid interface facilitate the surface wettability and flux transition, which will bring out superior continuous separation and surface lubrication control

A Wax-Elastomer Superwetting Membrane with Controllable Permeability: Toward Separating a Crude Oil-in-Water Emulsion from an Oil Field

Smart superwetting membranes with finely tunable properties have attracted increased attention recently. However, they mostly focus on controllable wettability rather than controllable permeability. Also, the oil/water separation performance is usually tested with laboratory-simulated samples, making it hard for the materials to meet practical applications. Herein, we fabricate thermally responsive superwetting membranes with wax, polystyrene-B-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-B-polys (SEBS, a kind of elastomer), and polydopamine (PDA) to realize emulsion separation with controllable permeability. Benefiting from the elasticity of SEBS and the fluidity difference of wax at different temperatures, the pore size of the membrane could be readily tuned, resulting in different permeability. The separation flux is 0 at ambient temperature (pore size 0.394 μm) and is over 100 L m–2 h–1 at a high temperature (pore size 0.477 μm). The membrane could realize the separation of simulated oil-in-water emulsions with efficiency above 99.4%. Furthermore, it successfully achieved crude oil-in-water emulsion separation from the oil field with oil residues of less than 300 mg L–1 in the temperature range of 60–80 °C, which is the actual working temperature adopted in industrial production. Such a polydopamine/wax-SEBS modified membrane with unprecedented controllable permeability can promote the development of the emulsion treatment field and provide a new direction for designing smart superwetting materials

Superhydrophobic Coatings Composed of Multifunctional Polymers Synthesized Using Successive Modification of Dihydropyrimidin-2(1<i>H</i>)‑thione

Polymer synthesis via multicomponent reactions (MCRs) has opened avenues in polymer chemistry and led to the development of various types of functional polymers. Herein, we developed a strategy to prepare multifunctional polymers via the successive modification of dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-thione (DHPMT), which can be generated by the tricomponent Biginelli reaction. Four hydrophobic polymers were efficiently prepared by using DHPMT derivatives. These polymers can be dip-coated onto the oxidized copper mesh to obtain superhydrophobic meshes because of the strong attractive forces between the DHPMT derivatives and Cu(II). The optimized mesh has self-cleaning properties and outstanding stability in various liquid environments; it has also been successfully applied for oil/water separation with high separation efficiency and good durability. These results demonstrate that successive modification of DHPMT is a promising method for fabricating multifunctional polymers, which may have applications in polymer chemistry and materials science

Superhydrophobic Coatings Composed of Multifunctional Polymers Synthesized Using Successive Modification of Dihydropyrimidin-2(1<i>H</i>)‑thione

Polymer synthesis via multicomponent reactions (MCRs) has opened avenues in polymer chemistry and led to the development of various types of functional polymers. Herein, we developed a strategy to prepare multifunctional polymers via the successive modification of dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-thione (DHPMT), which can be generated by the tricomponent Biginelli reaction. Four hydrophobic polymers were efficiently prepared by using DHPMT derivatives. These polymers can be dip-coated onto the oxidized copper mesh to obtain superhydrophobic meshes because of the strong attractive forces between the DHPMT derivatives and Cu(II). The optimized mesh has self-cleaning properties and outstanding stability in various liquid environments; it has also been successfully applied for oil/water separation with high separation efficiency and good durability. These results demonstrate that successive modification of DHPMT is a promising method for fabricating multifunctional polymers, which may have applications in polymer chemistry and materials science