Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 6, Issue 12, Pages 8996-9003Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/am502302g
Keywords
glass fiber; oil-water separation; pSBMA; SI-ATRP; zwitterionic
Funding
- University of Akron faculty start-up fund
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Oil-water separation is a major problem in industries such as oil production and wastewater treatment, where millions of gallons of oil-contaminated water are produced. Zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (pSBMA) is a superhydrophilic polymer due to its strong interaction with water via electrostatic interactions. By coating surfaces of filter media with such a superhydrophilic polymer, it is expected that one can effectively separate oil and water. In this work, pSBMA was grafted onto glass fiber surfaces using surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). The in-air water contact angle of the pSBMA-treated glass was 8-15 degrees, as compared to 31 degrees for the control untreated glass, whereas the underwater-oil contact angle of the pSBMA-grafted glass was 162-169 degrees, as compared to 142 degrees for the control pristine glass, suggesting that the pSBMA-grafted glass slides are superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic. Such superhydrophilicity and underwater superoleophobicity were realized by modifying surface chemistry only, with no need to create rough surfaces. The pSBMA-grafted glass fiber filters demonstrated exceptional results at separating oil from water without even allowing miniscule amounts of visible oil to permeate through.
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