Synthesis of MIL-53 (Al) nanorods arrays on stainless steel meshes as high-flux membranes for oil/water separation

The effective separation of oil/water mixtures has dual significances for the environment protection and oil recycling, which requires high-performance separating materials. Herein, we propose MIL-53 (Al) nanorods arrays on stainless steel meshes for this purpose, which are prepared by the self-transformation of Al2O3 nanoparticles that are introduced by vacuum evaporation. This MOF layer exhibits an excellent hydrophilic property and a unique vertical structure with a loose upper part and dense lower part, which ensures the simultaneous high flux and separation efficiency. Therefore, the proposed membrane material demonstrates excellent separation performances in separating different free oil/water mixtures containing half volume of water and emulsified oil/water mixtures. Notably, when separating the free ethyl acetate/water mixture, a high flux exceeding 9980 L m- 2 h- 1 is achieved along with an oil rejection of 99.8 %. Additionally, impressive stability and recyclability are also obtained in separating oil-in-water emulsion, demonstrating its great application potential. We believe this work will inspire the design of other advanced materials for oil/water separation.