Surface Modification of Stainless-Steel Membrane using a Closed-Batch iCVD Reactor for Oil/Water Separation

Abstract

Oil-spill is one of the major global issues facing society in this century. The aim of this study was to develop a steel-based membrane for selective separation of oil from oil/water mixture. For this purpose, a single-step, rapid and environmentally friendly closed-batch initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) method was employed to deposit hydrophobic thin film on a stainless-steel mesh. Perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFDA) and tert-butyl peroxide (TBPO) were used as monomer and initiator, respectively. Owing to the inherent vapor-based nature of iCVD method provided excellent conformal coverage on the mesh with high durability. iCVD coated mesh showed 96% oil/water separation efficiency. Highly reproducible results were obtained when the oil/water separation experiments were repeated.

Environmentally Friendly and All-Dry Hydrophobic Patterning of Graphene Oxide for Fog Harvesting

“…In the PPFDA spectrum, the intense peak at 1145 cm –1 is caused by the –CF 2 –CF 3 end group. The other sharp peaks observed at 1080 and 1199 cm –1 are caused by the asymmetric stretching and symmetric stretching of the –CF 2 –, respectively. − The monomer spectrum contains peaks originating from the CC double bond at 1641, 1460, 1415, 1080, and 985 cm –1 , which are absent in the polymer spectrum indicating that the polymerization pathway during iCVD is through the double bond of the vinyl monomer . Hence, it can be concluded that iCVD is able to produce PPFDA films on GO with high retention of the pendant perfluoroalkyl group of the monomer.…”