Superhydrophilic
stainless steel hollow fiber microfiltration membranes
(SSHF-MFs) were developed through a facile dip-coating method, followed
by sintering at a low temperature of 500 °C. A novel mediating
additive was explored to mediate the coating suspensions. The additive,
which could form hydrogen bonds with TiO2 agglomerations,
facilitated the formation of a continuous TiO2 layer on
the rough surface of stainless steel hollow fibers (SSHFs). The fabricated
SSHF-MFs exhibited superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobicity
wettability, which enabled SSHF-MFs to be applied to antifouling fields.
The fouling resistance of SSHF-MFs for oil/water emulsion, cake layer
foulant (sodium alginate, SA), and adhesive foulant (bovine serum
albumin, BSA) were investigated systematically. SSHF-MFs exhibited
superior antifouling properties and high rejections of 99% and 90%
for oil/water emulsion and SA foulant solution, respectively. For
the adhesive BSA solution, SSHF-MFs still showed good antifouling
property after washing with a dilute alkaline solution and superior
separation performance (90%). Meanwhile, SSHF-MFs exhibited an excellent
separation performance for polystyrene microspheres (100 nm) with
a rejection of 100%. In conclusion, SSHF-MFs showed great potential,
not only in traditional microfiltration fields, such as solid–liquid
separation, but also in the antifouling field, such as oil/water separation.
The facile fabrication conditions and superior wettability further
improved the sustainability of SSHF-MFs in practical applications.