Double‐Defense Design of Super‐Anti‐Fouling Membranes for Oil/Water Emulsion Separation

Abstract Oil fouling threatens the water flux stability of membranes for oil/water separation. Simple hydrophilic modification fights for an opportunity to prevent oil contamination but fails to eliminate severe water flux decline. In essence, a “single‐defense” mechanism is insufficient to build a potent barrier against accumulated cake layer under a filtration environment. This work reports a “double‐defense” design by integrating hydrophilic polymer brushes and hydrogel layer on oil/water separation membranes for desired anti‐oil‐fouling property, where a poly(vinylidene fluoride) porous membrane is first covered by a layer of poly(hydroxyethyl methylacrylate) hydrogel and then controllably grafted with…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 21988102, 22105219
• CP
  China Postdoctoral Science Foundation

  Award: 2021M692364
• YI
  Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Award: 2019YFA0705800