Oil removal from oily water by a low-cost and durable flexible membrane made of layered double hydroxide nanosheet on cellulose support

Due to frequent oil spill accidents and the increase of industrial oily wastewater, the removal of oil and organic pollutants from water is highly desired. In this work, a low-cost and durable flexible membrane made of layered double hydroxides nanosheets on cellulose support is successfully fabricated by combining the in situ growth technique and hydrophobic modification. Firstly, the rough surface is fabricated by in situ growth of Zn-Al layered double hydroxide nanosheets. Then, the superhydrophobic surface is obtained by grafting the silane coupling agent. The relevant results revealed that the obtained membrane showed both superhydrophobic and superoleophilic propertied simultaneously. The samples not only show high separation efficiency (all above 94.4%), great chemical durability and good recyclability, but also display excellent separation properties for surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions with high separation efficiency (less than 25 ppm) and good flux (500 Lm(-2)h(-1)) without extra energy. Therefore, the superhydrophobic layered double hydroxide/cellulose membranes enable an efficient separation for various oil/water emulsions, showing attractive potential for practical oil water separation. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.