J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2024, Vol. 185: 133-146.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2023.10.039

• Research article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

2D Ti3C2Tx modifie d with nano-AgPNPs antioxidant constructed hierarchical interface for high-throughput oily wastewater separation

Qing-Ming Wang1, Xu-Han Chen1, Qiu-Feng Lü*, Qilang Lin*   

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, 2 Wulongjiang North Avenue, Fuzhou 350108, China
  • Received:2023-08-20 Revised:2023-10-20 Accepted:2023-10-21 Online:2023-12-14
  • Contact: *E-mail addresses: qiufenglv@fzu.edu.cn (Q.-F. Lü), linqilang@fzu.edu.cn (Q. Lin).
  • About author:1These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract: Over-exploitation of fossil energy has led to the formation of enormous amounts of oily wastewater, which is increasingly polluting the environment of water bodies. The Ti3C2Tx-modified separation material is limited by surface roughness and surface chemical composition, and the permeation flux decreases significantly during continuous testing. In this study, silver-loaded polydopamine nanospheres (nano-AgPNPs) as antioxidants were prepared by in-situ reduction from Ag+ ions and polydopamine nanospheres, and then they self-assembled with Ti3C2Tx nanosheets to obtain hierarchical micro-nano structural nano-AgPNPs modified Ti3C2Tx [(AgPNPs)xT (x = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1)]. Because of their strong reduction properties, nano-AgPNPs antioxidants can effectively protect the active edges of Ti3C2Tx from dissolved oxygen, and greatly improve the oxidation resistance of Ti3C2Tx nanosheets, with no significant changes in morphology and physical phase after long-term placement. (AgPNPs)xT formed underwater oleophobic interfaces with the hierarchical structure on polyurethane (PU) sponge to prepare (AgPNPs)xT@PU separation sponges. Among them, (AgPNPs)0.5T@PU sponge showed the highest comprehensive performance with separation efficiency higher than 99.6% for various oil-water mixtures, especially high-throughput and permeation flux up to 247,787 L m-2 h-1 for cyclohexane-water mixtures. In addition, nano-AgPNPs greatly broadened the layer spacing of Ti3C2Tx and can form a functionalized interface of modified Ti3C2Tx on polyamide (PA) membrane and provide additional permeation channels, which enabled the (AgPNPs)0.5T@PA membrane to have excellent toluene-water emulsion separation efficiency up to 99.6%.

Key words: Ti3C2Tx, Nano-AgPNPs, High-throughput, Oily wastewater separation, Oxidation resistance