Intelligent pH-responsive PMIA membrane with reversible wettability for controllable oil/water and emulsion separation

Intelligent membrane with reversible wettability is an ideal strategy for oil/water separation, but there are still limitations of the reality application of oil/water separation. This effort produced a distinctive, intelligent, pH-sensitive oil/water separation membrane. Modified silica (SiO2-OTES), low-budget titanic oxide (TiO2), decanoic acid (DA), pollution-free chitosan (CTS), and Poly (m-phthaloyl-m-phenylenediamine) (PMIA) are selected to combine to form a superhydrophobic SO@TDC/PM membrane. The wettability of the modified membrane is reversible under the different effects of ammonia treatment and heat treatment. Also, the intelligent membrane is used to achieve controllable separation of oil/water mixtures, and to effectively separate various oil-in-water emulsions and water-in-oil emulsions before and after wettability conversion. In addition, the intelligent membrane has excellent self-cleaning ability, a high separation flux, and high separation efficiency. At the same time, the intelligent membrane itself has good organic solvent, storage, and mechanical stability. The results show that SO@TDC/PM membrane has good reversible wettability, which provides a broad prospect for the development of intelligent response materials with reversible wettability.