Rapid Construction of Caffeic Acid/p‑Phenylenediamine Antifouling Hydrophilic Coating on a PVDF Membrane for Emulsion Separation

The current methods of constructing modification strategies for hydrophilic membranes are time-consuming, complex in operation, and poor in universality, which limit their application on membranes. In this work, inspired by the adhesion properties and versatility of caffeic acid (CA) and p-phenylenediamine (PPDA), a simple, rapid, and universal method was designed for the separation of oil-in-water emulsion by preparing a stable hydrophilic coating separation membrane. The preparation time of the membrane was shortened to 40 min. The developed PVDF–PCA/PPDA membrane showed superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic properties. When applied to petroleum ether-in-water emulsion, isooctane-in-water emulsion, and dodecane-in-water emulsion separation, the oil rejection was more than 99.0%. In the circulating separation of 10 g/L soybean oil-in-water emulsion, the oil rejection was more than 99.3%, and the highest flux was 1036 L·m–2·h–1. The prepared PVDF–PCA/PPDA membrane performed well in the separation test of oily wastewater. The proposed strategy is simple and rapid; it may become a universal method for preparing membranes with super strong antifouling properties against viscous oil and accelerate the research progress of membrane separation of oil-in-water emulsions.