Fabrication of Flexible Filter for Efficient Hot Oil/Water Separation Using Plasma Polymerization

Increasing oily industrial waste water at room and high temperatures has become one of the most significantthreats to the global ecosystem. Finding a suitable method for separating hot-oil/water pollution with an appropriate filter ishighly necessary to effectively solve this problem. In this study, high-temperature oil/water separation was achieved using asilicon-modified textile (Si-cotton) as a filter, which was fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) solution as theprecursor and through plasma polymerization. The plasma polymerization generated a uniform micro and nanoscalehierarchical structure on the Si-cotton surface. Furthermore, XPS and FT-IR analysis showed the lowering of the O/C ratio onthe Si-cotton surface with respect to the pristine textile, and the presence of silicon on the Si-cotton surface after the plasmaprocess. The results of these factors can be critical in making the final hydrophobic/oleophilic behaviour of the textile. Moreimportantly, the Si-cotton membrane was tested for the separation process of hot oil/hot water mixture, which showed anacceptable efficiency even after fifteen separation cycles. The findings offered a two-step method, efficient and green, whichwas capable of working well even at a high temperature, to fabricate a flexible and scalable Si-cotton textile filter forreducing the necessity of additional and complicated cooling processes in the presence of high-temperature oil/water mixture