110th Anniversary: Liquid Separation Membranes Based on Nanowire Substrates for Organic Solvent Nanofiltration and Membrane Distillation

John Chau, Dhananjay Singh, Kamalesh K. Sirkar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ceramic nanowire-based flat porous membranes allow development of organic-inorganic membranes. Two types of surface modifications of alumina nanowire-based membranes were implemented. The first one involved reaction of hydroxyl groups on an alumina surface with silicone oil at a higher temperature, developing a grafted coating yielding a nonporous or a porous hydrophobic membrane. The hydrophobicity was verified via a contact angle comparable to that of a porous hydrophobic ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene membrane. The membrane porosity was demonstrated by running vacuum membrane distillation with a 1 wt % salt-containing brine. The process yielded satisfactory water vapor flux with 98% salt rejection. The silicone oil's reaction with the alumina surface could also block the pores, yielding a nonporous membrane for organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). Interfacial polymerization was also carried out on the porous nanowire membrane to yield a nonporous polyamide membrane. The developed membrane was tested for OSN using the dyes Safranin O (MW, 351 g/mol) and Brilliant Blue R (MW, 826 g/mol) in methanol. Rejections of 68.1% and 76.7% were achieved for Safranin O and Brilliant Blue R, respectively, at a relatively low pressure of 551 kPag (80 psig). The methanol permeabilities were higher than those of a few nanofiltration membranes described in the literature.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)14350-14356
Number of pages7
JournalIndustrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume58
Issue number31
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 7 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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