Three-dimensionally printed bioinspired superhydrophobic PLA membrane for oil-water separation

A novel lotus-leaf-inspired superhydrophobic poly(lactic acid) (PLA) porous membrane was fabricated for oil-water separation based on fused deposition modeling three-dimensional printing and subsequent chemical etching and the decoration of polystyrene nanospheres. A superhydrophobic PLA fractal surface with a water contact angle of 151.7° and low water adhesion force of 21.8 μN was achieved. The membrane pore size could be easily adjusted from 40 to 600 μm via a computer-aided design program to optimize separation performance. The maximal oil-water separation efficiency of 99.4% was achieved with a pore size of 250 μm, which also exhibited a high flux of 60 kL m −2 h −1 . © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 64: 3700–3708, 2018