Photothermal-Responsive Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube-Based Ultrathin Membranes for On/Off Switchable Separation of Oil-in-Water Nanoemulsions

Abstract

Oil-contaminated wastewater threatens our environment and health, especially that stabilized by surfactants. Conventional separation protocols become invalid for those surfactant-stabilized nanoemulsions due to their nanometer-sized droplets and extremely high stability. In this paper, photothermal-responsive ultrathin Au nanorods/poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide) cohybrid single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) nanoporous membranes are constructed. Such membranes are capable of separating oil-in-water nanoemulsions with a maximum flux up to 35 890 m(2)·h(-1)·bar(-1) because they feature hydrophilicity, underwater oleophobicity, and nanometer pore sizes. It is remarkable that the permeation flux can be simply modulated by light illumination during the process of separation, due to the incorporation of thermal-responsive copolymers and Au nanorods. Meanwhile, it shows ultrahigh separation efficiency (>99.99%) and desired antifouling and recyclability properties. We anticipate that our ultrathin photothermal-responsive SWCNT-based membranes provide potential for the generation of point-of-use water treatment devices.

Micro‐/Nanostructured Interface for Liquid Manipulation and Its Applications

“…More recently, researchers utilized stimuli‐responsive materials to fabricate controllable oil–water separators that can tackle more challenging problems . Stimuli introduced to control the separation can be categorized as physical signals, including temperature, light, voltage, magnetic field, pressure, and chemical signals, such as pH, Hg ion, gas molecules, ammonia . Xin et al fabricated a TiO 2 doped PVDF nanofiber, and the smart membrane with microscale pores was obtained by electrospinning of the special nanofiber (Figure g,h).…”

Impact of single-walled carbon nanotubes on the embryo: a brief review

“…34,[38][39][40] Numerous studies have presented them in the form of seamless concentric tubes. 38,41,42 SWCNTs are highly absorbing materials with a strong optical absorption in the near-infrared range because of the first optical transition (E11); therefore, SWCNTs have been utilized in photothermal applications, 10,[43][44][45] and photoacoustic imaging. 46,47 Moreover, when semiconducting, SWCNTs with small band gaps (approximately 1 eV), exhibit photoluminescence in the near-infrared range.…”

Oil–Water Separation Using Superhydrophobic PET Membranes Fabricated Via Simple Dip‐Coating Of PDMS–SiO2 Nanoparticles

“…In an environment with excess water contaminated by a smaller amount of oil, such as an oil‐spill in seawater, containers consisting of SOM walls can be used to effectively isolate oil from water . Oil–water separation with SOMs consisting of carbon nanotubes (CNT), various polymers or graphene have recently been attempted in many groups . The SOMs are limited in terms of mass production and real applications due to limited cost‐effective target substrates and complex SOM fabrication procedures …”