Photo-Fenton Antifouling Membrane Based on Hydrophilized MIL-88A for Sustainable Treatment of Colored Emulsions

The complex composition of emulsions often adversely affects separations. When using hydrophilic membranes for oil-in-water emulsions, the oil and other components reduce hydrophilicity, flux, and separation efficiency. The separation of colored emulsions poses a challenge to membrane technology. This work reports a method to inlay hydrophilic particles on the surface of MIL-88A. The modified MIL-88A can form a hydrophilic coating on the membrane that is resistant to scouring. Thanks to the randomly distributed rod-like structure, this grooved coating has remarkable resistance to contamination. Flux can be restored by water washing. A flux close to 5000 L m–2 h–1 bar–1 is consistently maintained in 10 emulsion separations. The modified membrane removes 99% of dyes in addition to oil when treating colored emulsions. Dyes adsorbed to the surface can be degraded by the photo-Fenton reaction under visible light, which ensures the ability to treat colored emulsions continuously.