MnO2-modified PEEK membrane for efficient oil-water separation and solar-assisted seawater desalination

Economic and efficient routes to achieve clean freshwater from oil-water mixtures and seawater have gained special attention to reduce the current water crisis, but still a challenge unsolved. Herein, poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) membrane, modified with MnO 2 layer, has been prepared by facile hydrothermal method to address this issue aforementioned. Given the existence of PEEK and underwater superoleophobicity/underoil superhydrophilicity of MnO 2 , the composite membrane exhibits strong mechanic properties (tensile stress: 110.2 MPa) and high separation efficiencies (99.9 %) for different oil–water mixtures under gravity. Additionally, our membrane could also effectively separate immiscible oil mixtures according to the dipole–dipole interaction. Furthermore, firm chemical stability against dichloromethane, N, N-Dimethylformamide, 1 M NaOH, 1 M HCl, and 1 M NaCl has been achieved. Most importantly, our membrane displays durable evaporation efficiency (2.63 kg m -2 h −1 ), high energy efficiency (85.9 %), and super salt tolerance under 1 sun irradiation, for solar-assisted seawater desalination.