Electrospun frogspawn structured membrane for gravity-driven oil-water separation
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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

Implantation of Electrospun Vascular Grafts with Optimized Structure in a Rat Model
Published on: June 27, 2018
Mengjie Zhang1, Wenjing Ma1, Shutian Wu1
1College of Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for the Chemistry and Utilization of Agro-forest Biomass Jiangsu Key Lab of Biomass-based Green Fuels and Chemicals, Nanjing Forestry University (NFU), Nanjing 210037, PR China.
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to prepare a fibrous membrane scaffold that possesses a frogspawn structure for high-efficiency oil-water separation. Polyamic acid was first electrospun onto a rotating wheel-collector to obtain the fibrous membrane. Subsequently, post-processing by immersion in a polydimethylsiloxane solution and a silica nanoparticles suspension, followed by a thermal treatment generated a frogspawn-structured fibrous membrane. The obtained membrane achieved superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity, with the water contact angle as high as 155.75° and the oil contact angle lower than 10°. The separation efficiencies of the membrane were higher than 99.55% and the permeate flux was maintained at greater than 4400 L/m2∙h after 20 separation cycles. Additionally, the wettability studies suggested the membrane exhibits high stability because it can resist damages due to high temperature (150 °C), acid/basic conditions and organic/inorganic solvents. These findings indicated that this composite membrane has great potential for use in gravity-driven oil-water separation and can extend the range of its application for treatments of oil spills incident, oily wastewater and spent liquor.
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