A pure inorganic ZnO-Co3O4 overlapped membrane for efficient oil/water emulsions separation

The earth's environmental problems, especially for water remediation, need effective methods to solve. Materials with special wettability are developed for the separation of oil/water mixtures. However, the separation of emulsified oil/water mixtures can be a real challenge. There is still much deficiencies, on account of the surfactant, which could link water molecules and oil molecules to form a stabilized system. Here we report a pure inorganic ZnO-Co3O4 overlapped membrane to give a brand new solution to emulsified oil/water mixture separation. Fabricated by an easy and cost-efficient way, such a membrane combines the properties of under-water superoleophobicity and under-oil superhydrophobicity, which can be successfully used for the efficient separation of both surfactant-free and surfactant-stabilized emulsions, solely driven by gravity. This ZnO-Co3O4 overlapped membrane shows great potential applications to industrial wastewater treatment, domestic sewage purification and other water remediation.