Collagen fiber membrane-derived chemically and mechanically durable superhydrophobic membrane for high- performance emulsion separation

Developing high-performance separation membrane with good durability is a highly desired while challenging issue.Herein,we reported the successful fabrication of chemically and mechanically durable superhydrophobic membrane that was prepared by embedding UiO-66 as size-sieving sites within the supramolecular fiber structure of collagen fiber membrane(CFM),followed by the polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS)coating.The as-prepared CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membrane featured capillary effect-enhanced separation flux and homogeneous porous channels guaranteed high separation efficiency.When utilized as double-layer separation membranes,this new type of composite membranes separated various surfactant stabilized water-in-oil microemulsions and nanoemulsions,with the separation efficiency high up to 99.993%and the flux as high as 973.3 L m−2 h−1.Compared with commercial polytetrafluoro ethylene(PTFE)membrane,the advantage of the double-layer CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membranes in separation flux was evident,which exhibited one order of magnitude higher than that of commercial PTFE membrane.The CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membrane was acid-alkali tolerant,UV-aging resistant and reusable for emulsion separation.Notably,the CFM/UiO-66(12)/PDMS membrane was mechanically durable against strong mechanical abrasion,which was still capable of separating diverse water-in-oil emulsions after the abrasion with sandpaper and assembled as double-layer separation membranes.We anticipate that the combination of CFM and metal organic frameworks(MOFs)is an effective strategy for fabricating high-performance separation membrane with high mechanical and chemical durability.