Polyphenolic Chemistry-Enabled High-Performance Amphiphilic Size-Sieving Separation of Emulsions

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Separation Science
• Surface Chemistry

Background:

• Emulsion separation is crucial but hindered by porous materials forming repellent interfaces.
• Existing size-sieving materials struggle with emulsion spreading due to pore structure and surface properties.
• Poor flux in emulsion separation limits practical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a universal strategy for enhancing emulsion spreading and separation flux.
• To investigate the role of amphiphilicity in manipulating emulsion-material interactions.
• To demonstrate the effectiveness of amphiphilic modification on diverse porous materials.

Main Methods:

• Endowing various porous materials (MOFs, activated carbon, γ-Al2O3) with amphiphilicity using polyphenols-iron complexes.
• Utilizing noncovalent decoration via polyphenolic chemistry.
• Characterizing the modified materials and evaluating their performance in emulsion separation.

Main Results:

• Amphiphilic modification prevented the formation of lyophobic interfaces on rough surfaces.
• Emulsion spreading kinetics were boosted by up to 11.8-fold.
• A significant enhancement of 492.3% in separation flux was achieved.

Conclusions:

• Endowing size-sieving materials with amphiphilicity is a promising and universal approach for high-flux emulsion separation.
• The strategy effectively overcomes limitations associated with lyophobic interfaces.
• This work presents a novel method applicable to a wide range of porous materials for improved separation performance.