Mussel and cobweb-inspired superhydrophilic gating mesh membrane derived from wasted filter paper for robust oil/water separation

• Main Author: Lim, Desmond Xin An
• Other Authors: Duan Hongwei
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/74733
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

There are many challenges faced in the 21st century such as water security, air pollution and climate change. However, water security is a persistent and serious issue now due to an increase in the world population. Furthermore, the problem is aggravated due to water pollution, which reduces the already scarce resource. Currently, there are many ways to separate oil and water namely flocculation flotation, membrane separation, electrochemical and adsorption. With the advancement and growth of technology and the society, it is important to march towards an environmentally friendly method that is cheap yet sustainable. Yet, most studies that have been done, tackled the issue at hand by using physical approach to create superwetting materials. This requires specific equipment to fulfil conditions for the material to achieve the properties needed. Thus, this paper presents the development of superhydrophilic gating mesh membrane from wasted filter paper. Inspired by mussel and cobweb, the mesh with unidirectional transportation ability and tailored surface properties that is able to withstand physical damage and still able to perform oil/water separation. This paper also demonstrates the separation of water and oil and the robustness of the material. This report will show the synthesis of the material as well as comparing it with other known methods to develop similar properties of the material.