Cellulosic Paper-Based Membrane for Oil-Water Separation Enabled by Papermaking and in-Situ Gelation

Abstract While has obvious scientific significance, the oil-water separation membranes are argued at production and disuse, mainly ascribed to the complex processes and non-biodegradation. Papermaking has great potential in the field of oil/water separation. The pulp refining of papermaking can improve the properties of pulp to improve the properties of paper substrate, which play an important role in oil-water separation. Due to the separation process was conducted under water, the wet strength of paper-based membrane was improved by micro-dissolved and in-situ gelation. The strength, oil-water separation efficiency and flux of membranes were explored under different beating degrees and regenerated conditions. The separation for oil-water emulsion of membranes can keep more than 98.5%, and the flux can be adjusted by pulp refining and in-situ gelation. The membranes are expected to be a low-cost, high-efficient for oily wastewater purification. This work demonstrates a new idea for the development of oil-water separation and papermaking, which provides a feasible strategy for large scale production of fully biodegradable oil-water separation membrane.