Stearic acid modified Fe3O4/Y2O3 composite membranes for efficient oil-water separation

Traditional oil-water separation methods have low separation efficiency and are prone to environmental pollution. The development of low-cost and environmentally friendly novel oil-water separation membranes is of wide interest nowadays. In this work, stearic acid modified Fe 3 O 4 /Y 2 O 3 (Fe 3 O 4 /Y 2 O 3 /SA) composite membranes are prepared on PET and cotton fabric using spraying and impregnation methods. Both Y 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles are compounded on the surface of the substrate and modified using stearic acid impregnation. The results show that Fe 3 O 4 /Y 2 O 3 /SA composite membrane has a water contact angle of 152.5° and exhibits super hydrophobicity/lipophilicity. At the same time, the composite membrane has excellent oil-water separation performance, including high separation efficiency (99.92 %) for a variety of oil-water mixtures, and good stability in 15 cycles of separation tests. The mechanism of oil-water separation is discussed.