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Greatly Improved Oil-in-Water Emulsion Separation Properties of Graphene Oxide Membrane upon Compositing with Halloysite Nanotubes

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Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes provide an encouraging opportunity for oil-in-water emulsion separation with high separation efficiency. In this work, novel hierarchically structured membrane consisting of GO and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) was successfully fabricated by vacuum-assisted filtration method. XRD and TEM measurements showed the successful intercalation of HNTs into the interlayers of GO nanosheets. With the incorporation of the one-dimensional hollow tubular structure halloysite nanotubes, GO-HNTs(GOH) membrane possessed combined advantages of high oil rejection rate and excellent fouling resistance properties. The permeate fluxes increased from 286.6 L/(m2·h) for GO membrane to 716 L/(m2·h) for GOH membrane. The results indicate that the GOH membranes have great potential applications in water purification and wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financed by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 5140003), Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (1508085QE105), Scientific Research Fund of Anhui Provincial Education Department (KJ2016A791, KJ2017A030), Anhui Province Institute of High Performance Rubber Materials and Products, and The 211 Project of Anhui University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Polymer Materials, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Yao Zhu, Pengpeng Chen, Wangyan Nie & Yifeng Zhou

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, People’s Republic of China

    Pengpeng Chen & Yifeng Zhou

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  1. Yao Zhu
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  2. Pengpeng Chen
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  3. Wangyan Nie
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  4. Yifeng Zhou
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Correspondence to Pengpeng Chen or Yifeng Zhou.

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Zhu, Y., Chen, P., Nie, W. et al. Greatly Improved Oil-in-Water Emulsion Separation Properties of Graphene Oxide Membrane upon Compositing with Halloysite Nanotubes. Water Air Soil Pollut 229, 94 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-3757-6

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