Superwetting hierarchical porous silica nanofibrous membranes for oil/water microemulsion separationElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Detailed synthesis and structural confirmation of BA-CHO, FT-IR and EDX results, Movie S1-S3. See DOI: 10.1039/c4nr04668d

Novel flexible, thermally stable and hierarchical porous silica nanofibrous membranes with superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity were prepared by a facile in situ synthesis method, which can effectively separate oil-in-water microemulsions solely driven by gravity, with an extremely high flux of 2237 L m −2 h −1 . Novel flexible, thermally stable and hierarchical porous silica nanofibrous membranes with superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity were prepared for effective gravity driven separation of oil-in-water microemulsions.