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DOE OSTI · 1768821

3D-Printed Membranes with a Zwitterionic Hydrogel Coating for More Robust Oil–Water Separation

Song, Yihan·Wang, Bingchen·Altemose, Patrick·Kowall, Cliff·Li, Lei
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Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D)-printed membranes via stereolithography (SLA) are promising in oil–water separation, which is the key in the purification of industrial oily wastewater. To achieve gravity-driven oil–water separation, the membrane material needs to be simultaneously hydrophilic/oleophobic. However, most of the state-of-the-art materials for SLA do not meet the requirement. While water-adsorbing hydrogel is simultaneously hydrophilic/oleophobic and there have been reports on 3D printing of hydrogels in biomedical applications, the hydrogel is too soft for membrane application. Here, we report a simple approach to tackle the issue: a hydrogel coating on SLA-based plastic membranes. The coating is fabricated, using [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide as the zwitterionic monomer and acrylamide as the comonomer, via in situ polymerization on SLA-based plastic membranes. The contact angle tests and Fourier transform infrared spectrum show that such a membrane readily adsorbs water and becomes simultaneously hydrophilic/oleophobic. The oil–water separation tests indicate that the water-adsorbed membrane is highly efficient in gravity-driven oil–water separation in 31 repeating cycles. Our results indicate the great potential of 3D-printed membranes in oil–water separation.

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRYCoating materialsHydrogelsHydrophilicityLipidsMembranes

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Song, Yihan, Wang, Bingchen, Altemose, Patrick, Kowall, Cliff, Li, Lei. 2020-11-19. 3D-Printed Membranes with a Zwitterionic Hydrogel Coating for More Robust Oil–Water Separation. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.0c04436

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