Intertwisted superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic collagen fibers enabled anti-fouling high-performance separation of emulsion wastewater

Oil-contaminated wastewater has been one of the most concerned environmental issues. Superwetting materials-enabled remediation of oil contamination in wastewater faces the critical challenge of fouling problems due to the formation of intercepted phase. Herein, high-performance separation of emulsions wastewater was accomplished by developing collagen fibers (CFs)-derived water-oil dual-channels that were comprised of intertwisted superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic CFs. The dual-channels relied on the superhydrophilic CFs to accomplish efficient demulsifying, which played the role as water-channel to enable fast transportation of water, while the superhydrophobic CFs served as the oil-transport channel to permit oil transportation. The mutual repellency between water-channel and oil-channel was essential to guarantee the stability of established dual-channels. The unique dual-channel separation mechanism fundamentally resolved the intercepted phase-caused fouling problem frequently engaged by the superwetting materials that provided single-channel separation capability. Long-lasting (1440 min) anti-fouling separations were achieved by the superwetting CFs-derived dual-channels with separation efficiency high up to 99.99%, and more than 4-fold of stable separation flux as compared with that of superhydrophilic CFs with single-channel separation capability. Our investigations demonstrated a novel strategy by using superwetting CFs to develop water-oil dual-channels for achieving high-performance anti-fouling separation of emulsions wastewater. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATION: Industrial processes discard a large amount of emulsion wastewater, which seriously imperils the aquatic ecosystem. This work demonstrated a conceptual-new strategy to achieve effective remediation of emulsion wastewater via the water-oil dual-channels established by the intertwisted superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic collagen fibers (CFs). The superhydrophilic CFs enabled efficient demulsification of emulsions and played the role of water-channel for the rapid transportation of water, while the superhydrophobic CFs worked as oil-channel to permit the efficient transportation of oil pollutants. Consequently, the long-term (1440 min) anti-fouling high-performance separation of emulsion wastewater was achieved.