Harsh environmental-tolerant ZIF-8@polyphenylene sulfide membrane for efficient oil/water separation and air filtration under extreme conditions

Whereas harsh environmental wastewater purification and polluted air filtration is eagerly desired, traditional membranes cannot meet such demands due to its poor chemical/thermal resistance which remains a great challenge. Herein, a harsh environmental-tolerant zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF-8) @polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) membrane with tunable hierarchical structure for efficient oil/water separation and air filtration under extreme conditions was proposed. Highly robust and flexible biomimetic ZIF-8@PPS membrane with lotus-leaf papillary structure was successfully developed via large-scale melt-blown PPS nonwovens followed by in-situ growth porous ZIF-8. The biomimetic ZIF-8@PPS membrane truly combining the advantages of special polymeric PPS and inorganic zeolite for harsh environmental wastewater and air treatment, which exhibits smart switchable super-oleophobic/hydrophobic characteristic and PM2.5 purification performance under harsh water/oil mixture (strong acid/alkali) and high temperature (exceed 200 °C) conditions. The biomimetic ZIF-8@PPS membrane exhibits extremely high flux (28569.4 L m-2 h-1) and separation efficiency (99.932%) for oil/water separation, and excellent filtration efficiency (99.5%) for PM2.5 removal. Impressively, the robust and flexible ZIF-8@PPS membrane with strong chemical/thermal resistance could still maintain excellent separation/filtration performance even after numerous cyclic tests under harsh environments. The harsh environmental tolerant ZIF-8@PPS membrane with large-scale roll-to-roll production ability holds great promise for environmental protection under extreme conditions.