Facile Synthesis and Characterization of Super-Hydrophobic Fe2O3 for Membrane Distillation

Global water demand has pivoted potable water production to alternative methods such as desalination. Membrane distillation is a viable seawater purification method in which hydrophobicity is one of the crucial properties needed to obtain optimal process conditions. A super-hydrophobic nanomaterial based on Fe2O3 was synthesized for embedding into a polymeric membrane’s structure. Fe2O3-oleylamine particles were characterized through FTIR, XRD, and TGA, and compared to pure Fe2O3 particles in which successful oleylamine decoration was confirmed. The synthesized particles showed great potential in membrane technology, specifically in membrane distillation. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.