TY - JOUR
T1 - Tri-bore PVDF hollow fibers with a super-hydrophobic coating for membrane distillation
AU - Lu, Kang-Jia
AU - Zuo, Jian
AU - Chung, Tai-Shung
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Singapore National Research Foundation under its Energy Innovation Research Programme for supporting the project entitled, “Using Cold Energy from Re-gasification of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for Novel Hybrid Seawater Desalination Technologies” (Grant number: R-279-000-456-279). Miss Kangjia Lu would also like to thank Dr. Peng Wang and Miss Dan Hua for their valuable advices and kind support.
PY - 2016/4/27
Y1 - 2016/4/27
N2 - Membranes with good mechanical strength, high vapor flux and outstanding anti-wetting properties are essential for membrane distillation (MD) applications. In this work, porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) tri-bore hollow fiber membranes with super-hydrophobicity are developed to achieve these desired properties. The tri-bore hollow fiber offers better mechanical strength than the conventional single-bore fiber. To improve its anti-wetting properties, Teflon® AF 2400 is coated on the membrane surface. The effects of coating on membrane morphology, performance and anti-wetting properties have been thoroughly investigated. With an optimal coating condition (0.025 wt% of Teflon® AF 2400, 30 s), a super-hydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 151o is achieved. The resultant membrane shows an increase of 109% in liquid entry pressure (LEP) with a slight sacrifice of 21% in flux. Long term direct contact MD tests have confirmed that the Teflon® AF 2400 coated membrane has enhanced stability with an average flux of 21 kg m-2 h-1 and rejection of 99.99% at 60 °° C for desalination application.
AB - Membranes with good mechanical strength, high vapor flux and outstanding anti-wetting properties are essential for membrane distillation (MD) applications. In this work, porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) tri-bore hollow fiber membranes with super-hydrophobicity are developed to achieve these desired properties. The tri-bore hollow fiber offers better mechanical strength than the conventional single-bore fiber. To improve its anti-wetting properties, Teflon® AF 2400 is coated on the membrane surface. The effects of coating on membrane morphology, performance and anti-wetting properties have been thoroughly investigated. With an optimal coating condition (0.025 wt% of Teflon® AF 2400, 30 s), a super-hydrophobic surface with a contact angle of 151o is achieved. The resultant membrane shows an increase of 109% in liquid entry pressure (LEP) with a slight sacrifice of 21% in flux. Long term direct contact MD tests have confirmed that the Teflon® AF 2400 coated membrane has enhanced stability with an average flux of 21 kg m-2 h-1 and rejection of 99.99% at 60 °° C for desalination application.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/608643
UR - http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0376738816302952
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84964922414&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.04.058
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2016.04.058
M3 - Article
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 514
SP - 165
EP - 175
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -