Superhydrophobic ceramic hollow fiber membrane planted by ZnO nanorod-array for high-salinity water desalination.

• Ceramic membrane is modified by imitating of superhydrophobic biological surfaces. • The micro/nano hierarchical structure with low surface energy endows the superhydrophobicity. • The P-ZN-CHF membrane obtains antifouling ability. • The modified membrane shows excellent performances during vacuum membrane distillation. To solve the problems of membrane material tolerance and membrane fouling, a micro/nano hierarchial structure with low surface energy was constructed above the exterior surface of a ceramic hollow fiber membrane using ZnO nanorod arrays and 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PDTS) coatings, which make it superhydrophobic and self-cleaning. The surface morphology, chemical functional groups, and water contact angel of the modified membranes were identified. The results show that large quantity of ZnO nanorods possess desirable characteristics (i.e. superhydrophobicity, exceptional thermal and mechanical stability, and water contact angle of 160.12°) were detected on the ceramic membrane. The novel membrane shows excellent self-cleaning performance and good desalination ability in the utilization of vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) system for high-salinity water desalination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]