Supporting Information

A scalable method toward superhydrophilic and

underwater superoleophobic PVDF membranes for

effective oil/water emulsion separation

Tao Yuan, Jianqiang Meng*, Tingyu Hao, Zihong Wang, Yufeng Zhang

State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Tianjin Polytechnic

University, Tianjin 300387, People's Republic of China

*Corresponding Author: jianqiang.meng@hotmail.com

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Figure S1. (A) Photograph of the PETMPEG hydrogel fabricated in 5 minutes and (B) reaction
scheme for the PETMPEG hydrogel formation.

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Figure S2. The cross-flow filtration testing equipment used for oil/water separation and
antifouling experiments.

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Figure S3. XPS C 1s core-level spectra for (A) the PVDF membrane, (B) the PVDFA membrane
and (C) the PVDFAH membrane

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Figure S4. Water droplet images under n-dodecane for (A) PVDF membrane and (B) PVDFAH
membrane during the under-oil WCA measurements.

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Table S1. Chemical compositions of the PVDF membrane, the PVDFA membrane and the
PVDFAH membrane by XPS.

Sample C 1s [mol%] F 1s [mol%] O 1s [mol%] S 2p [mol%] n(O)/n(C)[mol/mol]

PVDF 38.1 61.9 - - -

PVDFA 50.6 46.0 3.4 - 0.07

PVDFAH 62.4 17.8 17.2 2.6 0.28

Table S2. The chemical composition distribution of PVDFAH membrane pore lumen by EDX.

Sample C K (At%) F K (At%) O K (At%) S K (At%)

top surface 73.2 6.8 9.9 10.0

inner pore 1 72.3 14.4 7.1 5.7

inner pore 2 75.5 13.2 6.4 4.9

inner pore 3 69.2 14.8 6.6 9.4

inner pore 4 70.9 13.8 5.9 9.4

inner pore 5 73.7 12.4 6.0 7.9

bottom surface 75.8 11.0 7.1 6.1

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