Microchip grafting for electrospun hydrophilic membrane

Oily wastewater generated from both daily life and industrial production poses a serious threat to the human environment and resources. Membrane separation technology has been widely recognized for the treatment of oily wastewater. In order to improve the antifouling ability of membrane, a microfluidic electrospinning based upon efficient grafting in microchip method was proposed. Sulfobetaine methacrylamide-like monomer (SPP) was successfully grafted to PVDF using UV-induced free radical polymerization reaction in microfluidic channels. Elemental analysis showed that the grafting amount of SPP was 6 times higher than that reaction in bottle. And the developed nanofiber membrane PVDF-g-SPP displayed a permeance of 68942 L∙m-2∙h-1∙bar-1 for separating soybean oil-in-water emulsion with the rejection of 99.8 %. Efficient preparation of PVDF-g-SPP nanofiber membranes is achieved. The coupled microfluidic-electrostatic spinning technique provides a new way for the rapid fabrication of nanofiber membranes.