Recycled PET as a PDMS-Functionalized electrospun fibrous membrane for oil-water separation

In recent years, low-cost and effective technologies for oil-water separation have been highly desired due to an increase of oily wastewater and frequent oil spill accidents. This study demonstrates a cost-effective and sustainable preparation of flexible fibrous membranes with high oil-water separation performance using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). The rPET fibrous membrane was prepared via electrospinning; in the following step, the rPET membrane was dip-coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to improve the water intrusion pressure and anti-water-fouling property of the rPET fibrous membrane. The effect of PDMS concentration on the membrane morphology, surface chemistry, thermal and mechanical properties, surface wettability and oil-water separation performance was evaluated. The membranes are superoleophilic with an oil contact angle of 0° and exhibit excellent anti-water-fouling properties. The PDMS-functionalized rPET membranes can effectively separate various oil-water mixtures driven by gravity, with a high flux (∼ 20,000 L m−2 h-1) and a high separation efficiency (> 98 %) for up to ten cycles and thus has potential industrial application.