Springtail-inspired omniphobic slippery membrane with nano-concave re-entrant structures for membrane distillation
Omniphobic membranes, due to their exceptional properties, have drawn significant attention for overcoming the bottleneck in membrane distillation (MD) technology. This study demonstrates an innovative method for fabricating an omniphobic membrane that is simple and facile compared to other methods such as wet/dry etching and photolithography. The surface morphology of springtails was imitated using electrospraying technique to coat a polyvinylidene fluoride substrate with concave-shaped polystyrene beads that were successfully developed by controlling the electrical traction (voltage) and air resistance (humidity). Then, the lipid coating of springtail surfaces was mimicked by dip-coating the membrane in a low-toxicity short-chain perfluoropolyether lubricant. The concave structure's tiny air pockets increased membrane hydrophobicity significantly, indicated by the fact that the first round of water bouncing took only 16.3 ms. Finally, in MD treatment of seawater containing 1.0 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate, the optimized omniphobic membrane maintained a stable 99.9% salt rejection rate.
Authors
- Pak Wai Wong
- Zuankai Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3510-1122)
- Jiawei Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8549-4534)
- Muhammad Usman Farid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1401-5559)
- Boram Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1300-0467)
- Mengnan Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9658-0107)
- Bhaskar Jyoti Deka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4199-4713)
- Chunhai Yi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3570-4353)
- Sanghyun Jeong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8995-3497)
- Alicia Kyoungjin An (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0041-2817)
- Xiaolu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1391-1093)
- Baoping Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8101-7538)
- Jiaxin Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5924-9490)
Institutions
- Chonnam National University (KR)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IN)
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
- Dalian University of Technology (CN)
- Pusan National University (KR)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-09-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52108-9
- Citations
- 30
- Primary Topic
- Membrane Separation Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.05
Funders
- Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee