Abstract Porous ceramic membranes with high mechanical strength are suitable for oil-water emulsion separation. Nonetheless, it is difficult to prepare ceramic membranes with a small pore size and a good antifouling ability. In this work, SiO2 nanoparticles were used to modify β-SiAlON ceramic membranes, which were successfully utilized to remove small oil droplets from oil-water emulsion. The modified membranes displayed a narrow pore size (the average pore size decreased from 1.05 µm, in the unmodified membrane, to 0.65 µm), and gas and water fluxes which are suitable for oil-water separation. Oil rejection rate was always higher than 90% under various pressures (1.0–2.0 bar) and flow velocities (1.0−3.0 L min−1) tested, which is considerably higher (60%) than the rejection rate of the unmodified membrane (which was 39.8%). Moreover, the modified membranes exhibited a good antifouling ability, since flux declined by only 7.0% after three recoveries via a simple ultrasonic treatment, over a total running period of 10 h. Accordingly, the produced membranes can be qualified for further consideration in oily wastewater treatment.

中文翻译：

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SiO2纳米颗粒改性的β-SiAlON陶瓷膜在油水乳液分离中具有高截留率

摘要 机械强度高的多孔陶瓷膜适用于油水乳化分离。尽管如此，制备具有小孔径和良好防污能力的陶瓷膜是困难的。在这项工作中，SiO2 纳米颗粒被用于改性 β-SiAlON 陶瓷膜，该膜成功地用于去除油水乳液中的小油滴。改性膜显示出较窄的孔径（平均孔径从未改性膜的 1.05 µm 减小到 0.65 µm），以及适合油水分离的气水通量。在测试的各种压力 (1.0–2.0 bar) 和流速 (1.0-3.0 L min-1) 下，除油率始终高于 90%，这比未改性膜的截留率 (60%) 高得多 (60%) 39.8%）。而且，改性膜表现出良好的防污能力，因为通过简单的超声波处理，在 10 小时的总运行时间内，经过 3 次恢复后，通量仅下降了 7.0%。因此，生产的膜可以在含油废水处理中进一步考虑。