{"title":"Designing triple-layer superhydrophobic/hydrophobic/hydrophilic nanofibrous membrane via electrohydrodynamic technique for enhanced anti-fouling and anti-wetting in wastewater treatment by membrane distillation","authors":"Xiao-Qiong Wu , Xing Wu , Hui-Wen Huo , Quan-Bao Zhao , Yu-Ming Zheng , Zongli Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100030","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100030","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Developing high-performance membranes for membrane distillation (MD) to treat highly saline industrial wastewater is of great significance. In this work, a superhydrophobic/hydrophobic/hydrophilic triple-layer membrane combining an electrosprayed superhydrophobic top layer, an electrospun hydrophobic nanofibrous intermediate layer and a hydrophilic microporous membrane substrate was fabricated by using electrohydrodynamic techniques. The top superhydrophobic surface possesses a unique surface morphology composing of hydrophobic SiO<sub>2</sub>-polymer microbeads with nanoscaled protrusions and interconnected thin nanofibers, which contributed to the enhanced water flux for desalination in direct contact MD. By tuning the concentrations of hydrophobic SiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles and polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene for electrospraying the top layer, the triple-layer membrane showed both enhanced anti-fouling and anti-wetting properties due to the reduced liquid-solid contact area and stable Cassie-Baxter state. The triple-layer membrane exhibited stable MD performances when using real seawater and industrial flue gas desulfurization wastewater as the feed solutions, while no obvious fouling and wetting being observed even at 60% water recovery. This study provides an effective approach for fabricating a high-performance triple-layer superhydrophobic/hydrophobic/hydrophilic membrane for potential practical MD applications for industrial wastewater treatment.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000174/pdfft?md5=c21f9aac6cbf4a568f526f659a114752&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000174-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87827556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creation of water-permeation pathways with matrix-polymer functionalized carbon nanotubes in polymeric membranes for pervaporation desalination","authors":"Cheng Tseng, Ying-Ling Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Membrane-based pervaporation desalination is an effective process for freshwater resource and treatments on waste brines. Both water permeation fluxes and salt rejection are concerned for the membrane-based desalination. In this work an effective approach to increase the water permeation fluxes of the pervaporation desalination membranes has been demonstrated through utilization of matrix-polymer functionalized carbon nanotubes in creation of water permeation pathways in the membranes. With poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as the matrix polymer for membrane fabrication, a small amount of PVA-functionalized CNTs (0.06 wt%) effectively increases the water permeation fluxes of the PVA membranes from 1,630 to 6,140 gm<sup>−2</sup>h<sup>−1</sup> (feeding solution: 3.5 wt% NaCl<sub>(aq)</sub> at 25 °C) without sacrifice of salt rejection, corresponding to a 3.77-times of increase in water permeation flux. The membrane is also workable on concentrated salt aqueous solution (15 wt% NaCl<sub>(aq)</sub>). The approach has the potential to be employed to other polymer membranes for pervaporation separation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000150/pdfft?md5=819325be50ea8bff635e42aef1c9a101&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000150-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90477027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bastiaan Blankert, Kees Theo Huisman, Fernan David Martinez, Johannes Simon Vrouwenvelder, Cristian Picioreanu
{"title":"Are commercial polyamide seawater and brackish water membranes effectively charged?","authors":"Bastiaan Blankert, Kees Theo Huisman, Fernan David Martinez, Johannes Simon Vrouwenvelder, Cristian Picioreanu","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>New developments in modeling solute transport in reverse osmosis (RO) membranes are based on the mechanistic description of solution friction and electromigration. In these models, the membrane charge significantly impacts the separation that occurs in the membrane through Donnan partitioning. One implication of membrane charge is that the salt permeability strongly depends on the ion concentration in the feedwater. In this study, we experimentally evaluate the effect of salinity, varied over almost two orders of magnitude (ca. 10–650mM), on four commercially available polyamide seawater RO and brackish water RO membranes. We found no significant effect of feed concentration on observed salt permeability, while the membrane performance closely resembled the specification by the manufacturers. We also demonstrate that a minor leak in the membrane provides a plausible alternative explanation to trend between concentration and salt permeability reported in other studies. The standard solution diffusion model provides a satisfactory description of our data for the membranes and feedwater conditions that we tested.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000198/pdfft?md5=b1fba880453088cfe37fe539f667d121&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000198-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76763702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Global optimization for accurate and efficient parameter estimation in nanofiltration","authors":"Danyal Rehman , John H. Lienhard","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100034","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100034","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>One of the most well-established frameworks for modeling multicomponent transport in nanofiltration (NF) is the Donnan-Steric Pore Model with Dielectric Exclusion (DSPM-DE). Conventional DSPM-DE characterizes transport across NF membranes through four governing membrane parameters: (1) pore radius; (2) effective membrane thickness; (3) membrane charge density; and (4) the dielectric constant inside the membrane pores. The process for quantifying these parameters is typically sequential. First, neutral solute experiments are performed to determine pore radius and effective membrane thickness. Next, charged species experiments are conducted, and the data is used to regress out the remaining parameters. The resulting regressions are often performed using local search algorithms that can struggle to provide low residuals with robust fits. In addition, this two-step approach tends to: (1) require a substantial number of charged and uncharged solute experiments; and (2) introduce assumed relationships between pore size and water flux, such as the Hagen-Poiseuille equation, which may not be representative of transport through complex pore networks. To address these issues, we propose the use of metaheuristic global optimization techniques supplemented with gradient-free local search and maximum likelihood estimation to simultaneously regress all four membrane parameters directly from charged species experiments. We validate our approach against eight independent datasets across diverse input salinities, compositions, and membranes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000216/pdfft?md5=8d532a150f743dec6b583aca0be0ab3c&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000216-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80442972","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mayur Ostwal , Edward Wazer , Marianne Pemberton , Jeffrey R. McCutcheon
{"title":"Scaling electrospray based additive manufacturing of polyamide membranes","authors":"Mayur Ostwal , Edward Wazer , Marianne Pemberton , Jeffrey R. McCutcheon","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100035","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100035","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Additive manufacturing based on electrospray printing has been demonstrated to fabricate polyamide membranes with separation properties similar to commercial membranes while also offering exceptional control of membrane thickness and roughness. In this work, we report on the scalability of the electrospray process to produce membrane leaves that are 10 times the area of membranes fabricated in literature through electrospray printing. The large membrane leaves exhibited salt rejection of >90% (at 2000 ppm feed salt concentration) and ∼0.7 LMH/bar flux, which is comparable to smaller printed membranes using the same process.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000228/pdfft?md5=ad8d72925245d7f627df8606705a7902&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000228-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87216895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engineering MOF surface defects in mixed matrix membranes: An effective strategy to enhance MOF/polymer adhesion and control interfacial gas transport","authors":"Dong Fan , Aydin Ozcan , Osama Shekhah , Rocio Semino , Mohamed Eddaoudi , Guillaume Maurin","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100029","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100029","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>MOF/polymer adhesion in Mixed Matrix Membranes (MMMs) has been mainly enhanced so far via MOF and/or polymer functionalization to strengthen the interactions between the two components. This strategy, albeit effective, is generally accompanied by a drop in the permeability and/or selectivity performance of the MMMs. In this contribution, engineering structure defects at the MOF surfaces is proposed as an effective route to create pockets that immobilize part of the polymer chain, which is of crucial importance both to avoid plasticization issues and to enhance the MOF/polymer affinity while overcoming the adhesion/performance trade-off in MMMs. This engineered interfacial interlocking structure also serves as a bridge to accelerate the gas transport from the polymeric region towards the MOF pore entrance. This concept is showcased with a model MMM made of the prototypical UiO-66 MOF and the glassy Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity-1 (PIM-1) and tested using CO<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub> and, N<sub>2</sub> as guest species. Our computational findings reveal that a defective UiO-66 MOF surface improves the MOF/PIM-1 adhesion and contributes to accelerate the interfacial gas transport of the slender molecules CO<sub>2</sub> and N<sub>2</sub> and in a lesser extent of the spherical molecule CH<sub>4</sub>. This translates into a selective enhancement of the CO<sub>2</sub> transport once combined with CH<sub>4</sub> which paves the ways toward promising perspective for pre-combustion CO<sub>2</sub> capture.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000162/pdfft?md5=07a60cbf077957e3a2943c497944bd5d&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000162-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120806629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antoine Venault, Hana Nur Aini, Tesfaye Abebe Galeta, Yung Chang
{"title":"Using the dimethyl sulfoxide green solvent for the making of antifouling PEGylated membranes by the vapor-induced phase separation process","authors":"Antoine Venault, Hana Nur Aini, Tesfaye Abebe Galeta, Yung Chang","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100025","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The toxicity of common solvents used in membrane fabrication threatens the environmental sustainability and questions the claim that membrane technology is a green separation technology. Therefore, there is a need for re-orienting membrane fabrication processes towards greener solutions, making use of less toxic, and possibly environmentally friendly solvents. We employed dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a non-toxic solvent, to prepare casting solutions containing polyvinylidene fluoride and an antifouling random copolymer made of polystyrene and poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PS-<em>r</em>-PEGMA). Membranes were formed by vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS). They were shown to be homogeneous in terms of structure and surface chemistry (tested by mapping FT-IR), suggesting compatibility of the polymer/copolymer/solvent system and justifying the choice of DMSO. Membrane hydration was drastically improved after adding PS-<em>r</em>-PEGMA with a water contact angle falling from 140° to 47°. As a result, biofouling by <em>Escherichia coli</em> and whole blood was reduced by > 90% in static conditions. During several filtration cycles of a highly fouling <em>Escherichia coli</em> solution flux recovery ratio could be increased from 16% (pristine membrane) to 29% (PEGylated membrane). All in all, this study reveals that low-biofouling homogeneous porous membranes can be prepared by <em>in-situ</em> modification and the VIPS process using a greener approach than traditionally reported.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000137/pdfft?md5=bad8639713799bd1e338b06d56f91381&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000137-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73332720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jingyi Wang , Zhongwei Cao , Xuefeng Zhu , Weishen Yang
{"title":"Improving intermediate-temperature stability of BSCF by constructing high entropy perovskites","authors":"Jingyi Wang , Zhongwei Cao , Xuefeng Zhu , Weishen Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>High entropy perovskites bring more space for materials design in many fields. The stability of materials in thermodynamics can be improved by increasing the mixed entropy. In this work, a series of Ba<sub>0.5</sub>Sr<sub>0.5</sub>Co<sub>0.8</sub>Fe<sub>0.2</sub>O<sub>3-δ</sub> (BSCF) based high entropy perovskite (HEBSCF) were designed to improve the stability of BSCF at intermediate temperatures. The influence of high entropy composition on the lattice parameter, microstructure and stability of HEBSCF were investigated. The results show that HEBSCF can accommodate cations with large size differences. Compared with BSCF, doping elements at A site (HEBSCF-A), B site (HEBSCF-B) or both sites (HEBSCF-AB) can improve the mixed entropy. Among the three doped BSCF, HEBSCF-AB has the highest mixed entropy and shows stable oxygen permeation flux at 750 and 800 °C up to 300 h. No phase transition was observed on HEBSCF-AB after the long-term tests at intermediate temperatures. This research indicates that the high entropy stabilization strategy is feasible to improve the permeation stability of perovskite membranes by inhibiting phase transition.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000149/pdfft?md5=7acb9960cbea68003cedb1525ac7bca3&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000149-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137007658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yiming Zhang , Junyong Zhu , Jingwei Hou , Shouliang Yi , Bart Van der Bruggen , Yatao Zhang
{"title":"Carbonic anhydrase membranes for carbon capture and storage","authors":"Yiming Zhang , Junyong Zhu , Jingwei Hou , Shouliang Yi , Bart Van der Bruggen , Yatao Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100031","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100031","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Carbonic anhydrase (CA) based membranes with unique biological activities have been widely explored for carbon capture and storage (CCS), owing to their high efficiency, easy operation, low energy requirement, and environmental sustainability. However, limitations of CA enzymes, such as low thermal stabilities, narrow optimum pH ranges, and difficulties in recovery from reaction media, hinder its practical applications. Consequently, combining its enzymatic activity with membrane technologies for industrial uses is an attractive strategy. This current review explores a variety of immobilization approaches and summarizes the mechanistic features of enzymatic membranes in CO<sub>2</sub> capture. Immobilized enzymes can be recycled to reduce process costs and improve the CO<sub>2</sub> permeability and selectivity of the membranes. This makes enzymatic membranes attractive for CCS. The study also summarizes the structure, synthesis, and applications of a variety of CA analogues to demonstrate their advantages compared with natural CA. CA analogues hold promise for industrial and biomimetic applications.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772421222000186/pdfft?md5=6fc827623716fb068c9ecfb1374dc5ef&pid=1-s2.0-S2772421222000186-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88726509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Porous substrate affects fouling propensity of thin-film composite nanofiltration membranes","authors":"Chenyue Wu, Li Long, Zhe Yang, Chuyang Y. Tang","doi":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.memlet.2022.100036","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Fouling is a critical consideration for the design of thin-film composite (TFC) nanofiltration membranes. Traditional wisdom believes that fouling propensity is primarily dictated by membrane surface properties while porous substrates play little role (on the basis on the latter have no effect on the foulant-membrane interaction). Nevertheless, porous substrates can regulate the water transport pathways, resulting in uneven water flux distribution over the membrane surface. For the first time, we experimentally investigated the micro-scale water flux distribution for nanofiltration membranes with different substrate porosities and the impact of such flux distribution pattern on fouling. With gold nanoparticles as tracers, we demonstrated more evenly distributed water flux at increasing substrate porosity. This was found to effectively alleviate membrane fouling by eliminating localized hot spots of high flux. Furthermore, higher substrate porosity also effectively enhanced the membrane water permeance due to the optimized water transport pathways. Our study reveals the fundamental relationship between the micro-scale transport behavior and the membrane fouling propensity, which provides a firm basis for the rational design of TFC membranes toward better separation performance.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":100805,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277242122200023X/pdfft?md5=a57c70b8568a4633a9d5756b1a50855d&pid=1-s2.0-S277242122200023X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85498773","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}