An Amphiphilic Ionic Polymer-Modified Wood-Based Membrane for Efficient Oil–Water Separation

Global water security is facing unprecedented challenges, among which oil spills, illegal discharge of industrial wastewater, and uncontrolled discharge of oily wastewater from domestic sewage are particularly prominent. These sources of pollution not only lead to the continuous deterioration of water resource quality but also pose multiple threats to the ecological balance and human health and safety. In this background, the development of efficient oily wastewater separation and recycling technologies has become a key topic to be solved in the current environmental engineering field. In this paper, a green, sustainable, and low-cost polysulfobetaine-wood (pSB-W) membrane was prepared by brush-modifying an amphoteric ionic polymer onto the wood surface. The prepared pSB-W membrane exhibited an ultrahigh flux (3699.1 L·m-2·h-1) and separation effect (more than 99.90%) for oil-in-water emulsions. Furthermore, the pSB-W membrane also has excellent chemical and mechanical stability as well as recyclability, which has excellent practical application value.