TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrophobic/hydrophilic PVDF/Ultem® dual-layer hollow fiber membranes with enhanced mechanical properties for vacuum membrane distillation
AU - Zuo, Jian
AU - Chung, Tai Shung
AU - O'Brien, Gregory S.
AU - Kosar, Walter
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation under its Energy Innovation Research Programme for the project entitled, “Using Cold Energy from Re-gasification of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for Novel Hybrid Seawater Desalination Technologies” (grant number: R279-000-456-279). We would also gratefully thank Arkema Inc. for proving the PVDF material.
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - Dual-layer hydrophobic/hydrophilic PVDF/Ultem® hollow fiber membranes with superior mechanical and water transport properties have been prepared via co-extrusion method for vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) of seawater. To fabricate such high-performance dual-layer hollow fibers consisting of two different materials, one must overcome the issues of delamination between the two polymer layers and dense interface morphology. The former would result in a defective membrane, while the latter could significantly increase the substructure resistance for vapor transport. By properly manipulating dope formulation and spinning conditions, we have overcome the first challenge and produced delamination free dual-layer fibers. The second problem is resolved by the addition of Al2O3 nanoparticles into the inner layer dope, which creates micro-porosity on the outer surface of the inner layer. The resultant dual-layer fibers show good mechanical properties, permeation flux and wetting resistance simultaneously under VMD operations. Comparing to the conventional single layer MD fibers, the newly developed VMD hollow fiber containing 15 wt% Al2O3 has 4.5- fold tensile strength (i.e., about 350% increment) with a VMD flux of 45.8 kg/m2-h at 70 °C. This study may provide valuable guidelines in designing superior dual-layer PVDF membranes for practical VMD applications of seawater desalination.
AB - Dual-layer hydrophobic/hydrophilic PVDF/Ultem® hollow fiber membranes with superior mechanical and water transport properties have been prepared via co-extrusion method for vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) of seawater. To fabricate such high-performance dual-layer hollow fibers consisting of two different materials, one must overcome the issues of delamination between the two polymer layers and dense interface morphology. The former would result in a defective membrane, while the latter could significantly increase the substructure resistance for vapor transport. By properly manipulating dope formulation and spinning conditions, we have overcome the first challenge and produced delamination free dual-layer fibers. The second problem is resolved by the addition of Al2O3 nanoparticles into the inner layer dope, which creates micro-porosity on the outer surface of the inner layer. The resultant dual-layer fibers show good mechanical properties, permeation flux and wetting resistance simultaneously under VMD operations. Comparing to the conventional single layer MD fibers, the newly developed VMD hollow fiber containing 15 wt% Al2O3 has 4.5- fold tensile strength (i.e., about 350% increment) with a VMD flux of 45.8 kg/m2-h at 70 °C. This study may provide valuable guidelines in designing superior dual-layer PVDF membranes for practical VMD applications of seawater desalination.
KW - Dual-layer hollow fiber
KW - Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)
KW - Seawater desalination
KW - Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84990937735&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.09.030
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.09.030
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84990937735
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 523
SP - 103
EP - 110
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -