Hydrophobically modified GO integrated PAN nanofibrous membranes for separation of water-in-oil emulsions

Nanofibrous membranes with super-wetting feature exhibit promising application for oil/water emulsion separation, but achieving high separation efficiency in harsh environments remains challenging. Herein, superhydrophobic/superoleophilic nanofibrous membrane based on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and hydrophobically modified graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by electrospinning technique. The multidimensional roughness that was produced by the overlapping of modified GO and nanofibers was crucial in producing superhydrophobic and superoleophilic wettability. For a variety of water-in-oil emulsions, the obtained nanofibrous membranes demonstrated outstanding oil/water separation performance. The maximum permeate flux reached 5135.8 L·m−2·h−1 with separation efficiency higher than 99.1 %. More importantly, the obtained nanofibrous membranes showed stable separation performance in strongly corrosive solutions or at high temperatures. This work presents a versatile way to fabricate functional membranes for the separation of water-in-oil emulsions.