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Synthesis of Hydrogels with Antifouling Properties As Membranes for Water Purification
Published on: April 7, 2017
Superhydrophobic Poly(l-lactic acid) Membranes with Fish-Scale Hierarchical Microstructures and Their Potential
Lingqi Zhong1, Haizheng Tao1, Xiao Gong1
1State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, P. R. China.
Abstract:
In this work, superhydrophobic poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) hierarchical membranes exhibiting excellent oil-removal performance, which is of great importance in curbing the oil-pollution environment, were fabricated by a simple solvent-evaporation-induced precipitation method. PLLA membranes with hierarchical micro/nanostructures (fish scales, fibrous sheets, and petal-like morphology) can be conveniently prepared by adjusting the preparation parameters including PLLA concentration, precipitation temperature, type of solvent and nonsolvent, and the addition of nano-SiO2. The results show that the water contact angle of the fish-scale-structured PLLA membrane was 138.6°, revealing that water repellency was significantly improved compared to that of the solvent-casting PLLA membrane (∼72.8°). Moreover, the PLLA/SiO2 nanocomposite membrane with a dense hierarchical micro/nanostructure had a water contact angle greater than 167.1°, which has great potential in oil-water separation.
