Ultrafast Fabrication of Metal-Organic Framework-Functionalized Superwetting Membrane for Multichannel Oil/Water Separation and Floating Oil Collection

Traditional methods for oil/water separation suffer from many tricky problems such as low efficiency, high energy consumption, and difficulties in recycling and reusing. To address these hurdles, we developed a metal-organic framework-coated superwetting membrane for multichannel oil/water separation and collection of floating oils. The dip-coating method adopted in this paper is extremely flexible in manipulation and can be completed within 1 h under a low temperature without any assistance of high pressure. Interestingly, the strategy of fabricating superwetting membrane mainly includes introducing vital interlayers of Cu(OH) nanowires, which not only construct the favorable hierarchical structures but also act as partly sacrificed templates for further growth of hydrophilic MOF nanowhiskers. In virtue of the high flexibility of the as-prepared mesh, this superwetting membrane can be applied for multichannel oil/water separation including gravity-driven oil/water separation, continuous oil/water separation, and floating oil collection. Moreover, the separation efficiency and flux of the superwetting membrane keep high and stable under multiple separation cycles. This study paves the way for a fast and facile preparation of a superwetting membrane with high applicability for multiple oil/water separation.