Biomimetic seaweed absorbable membrane for dye adsorption in wastewater treatment

Abstract

The problem of water pollution has become increasingly serious, posing a great threat to human health. Among the various water pollutants, a significant one is dyes, which have strong toxicity and carcinogenicity and seriously pollute water bodies, thus further posing a great threat to the health of aquatic life, animals, plants and human beings. However, dyes are widely used in textile, paper, and printing industries, and thus it is difficult to prevent their discharge into water bodies during the production process. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient methods to remove dyes from process wastewater as much as possible for wastewater purification. In this regard, the adsorption method has become one of the most effective methods to remove dyes because of its simple process and low cost. In this study, we prepared a biomimetic seaweed absorbable membrane (BSAM). This membrane has a unique porous structure and can adsorb dye molecules. After testing, the highest removal rate of methylene blue dye reached 97.72%. This type of membrane looks like seaweed, can curl when dry, is easy to disperse in water, and has excellent water solubility. In addition, because of its hydrophilicity, it exhibits good separation efficiency in the separation of water-in-oil emulsions. Thus, this membrane has certain application potential in the treatment of dye wastewater and dye-containing oil water in special processes on ships and in oil fields.