Journal of Nanomedicine & Biotherapeutic Discovery
Open Access

Leaf-inspired photo-responsive hierarchical nano-fibrous membrane for oil-water separation

Joint Event on 30^th Annual Congress on Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials & 8^th World Congress on Spectroscopy and Analytical Techniques

September 10 - 11, 2018 I Stockholm, Sweden

Zhengtao Li,W Tio and D D Sun

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nanomedine Biotherapeutic Discov

Abstract :

Oil contaminated wastewater from industry and oil spills threatens our environment and sustainable development. Conventional separation methods are suffering from several limitations. Membrane technology as well as nano-technology shows great potential in oil-water separation. Inspired by the stomata of leaves, a smart photo-sensitive hierar-chical nano-fibrous membrane was success-fully fabricated by a facile and highly effec-tive method with the combination of elec-trospinning and hydrothermal reaction in this research. ZnO nanorods can easily grow on the electrospun PSF nanofibers to form three-dimensional hierarchical structure with large specific surface area by hydrothermal reaction. Due to the photo-sensitivity of ZnO nanorods, without UV light, the surface is super-hydrophobic and air gaps in the pores will prevent the passage both of water and oil, while under UV light irrita-tion, the surface becomes super-hydrophilic and water will be able to pass through the membrane leaving oil at the other side. This photo-responsive nano-fibrous membrane shows excellent performance for oil-water separation.

Biography :

Z Li is currently a PhD student at School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He joined Prof. Darren Sun’s group in 2015. His re-search focuses on fabrication and application of bio-inspired super-hydrophilic materials

E-mail: zli018@e.ntu.edu.sg