Stearic acid modified Fe3O4/Y2O3 composite membranes for efficient oil-water separation

Traditional oil-water separation methods have low separation efficiency and are prone to environmental pollution. The development of low-cost and environmentally friendly novel oil-water separation membranes is of wide interest nowadays. In this work, stearic acid modified Fe3O4/Y2O3 (Fe3O4/Y2O3/SA) composite membranes are prepared on PET and cotton fabric using spraying and impregnation methods. Both Y2O3 and Fe3O4 nanoparticles are compounded on the surface of the substrate and modified using stearic acid impregnation. The results show that Fe3O4/Y2O3/SA composite membrane has a water contact angle of 152.5 degrees and exhibits super hydrophobicity/lipophilicity. At the same time, the composite membrane has excellent oil-water separation performance, including high separation efficiency (99.92 %) for a variety of oil-water mixtures, and good stability in 15 cycles of separation tests. The mechanism of oil-water separation is discussed.