All in one doubly pillared MXene membrane for excellent oil/water separation, pollutant removal, and anti-fouling performance

Given the diversity and complexity of coexisting oil/dyes/heavy metal ions/microorganisms in wastewater and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air, developing separation materials featured in higher separation efficiency and lower energy consumption for oil and water separation, pollutant removal, and anti-fouling is urgently needed, but it remains a major challenge till now. Herein, a multifunctional Ti₃C₂ MXene membrane with unique double pillar support was proposed by liquid phase ultrasonication and vacuum filtration to overcome the above challenge. Introducing cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and calcium chloride/sodium alginate (CaCl₂/SA) to the MXene membrane as crossed double pillars and superhydrophilic surface increases the tolerance and wettability of the membrane. The fabricated doubly pillared MXene (d-Ti₃C₂) membrane exhibits superior oil/water (O/W) separation efficiency (99.76%) with flux (1.284 L m⁻² h⁻¹) for canola oil and organic dye removing efficiency for methyl blue (MB) 99.85%, malachite green (MG) 100%, and methyl violet (MV) 99.72%, respectively, which is 1.05, 1.44, 1.22, and 1.28 fold compared with pre-pillared Ti₃C₂ (p-Ti₃C₂). The superior anti-oil/dye/fouling is attributed to lower oil conglutination, high hydrophily, and antibacterial activity. The versatile MXene membrane also shows distinguished separation of VOCs (η > 99%) from polluted air. The experimental and molecular dynamics (MD) computational simulation results illustrate that the superior separation efficiency of the Ti₃C₂ MXene membrane is ascribed to the unique doubly pillared space channel. This study paves a new road to further research on one step integration strategy for complex O/W separation, wastewater and VOCs removal, and anti-fouling via tuning nano/macro architecture.