Plasma modification and synthesis of membrane material: a mechanistic review

Although commercial membranes are well established materials for water desalination and wastewater treatment, modification on commercial membranes is still necessary to deliver high-performance with enhanced flux and/or selectivity and fouling resistance. A modification method with plasma techniques has been extensively applied for high-performance membrane production. The paper presents a mechanistic review on the impact of plasma gas and polymerization, at either low pressure or atmospheric pressure on the material properties and performance of the modified membranes. At first, plasma conditions at low-pressure such as plasma power, gas or monomer flow rate, reactor pressure, and treatment duration which affect the chemical structure, surface hydrophilicity, morphology, as well as performance of the membranes have been discussed. The underlying mechanisms of plasma gas and polymerization have been highlighted. Thereafter, the recent research in plasma techniques toward membrane modification at atmospheric environment has been critically evaluated. The research focuses of future plasma-related membrane modification, and fabrication studies have been predicted to closely relate with the implementation of the atmospheric-pressure processes at the large-scale

Short review on porous metal membranes—Fabrication, commercial products, and applications

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Porous metal membranes have recently received increasing attention, and significant progress has been made in their preparation and characterisation. This progress has stimulated research in their applications in a number of key industries including wastewater treatment, dairy processing, wineries, and biofuel purification. This review examines recent significant progress in porous metal membranes including novel fabrication concepts and applications that have been reported in open literature or obtained in our laboratories. The advantages and disadvantages of the different membrane fabrication methods were presented in light of improving the properties of current membrane materials for targeted applications. Sintering of particles is one of the main approaches that has been used for the fabrication of commercial porous metal membranes, and it has great advantages for the fabrication of hollow fibre metal membranes. However, sintering processes usually result in large pores (e.g., >1 µm). So far, porous metal membranes have been mainly used for the filtration of liquids to remove the solid particles. For porous metal membranes to be more widely used across a number of separation applications, particularly for water applications, further work needs to focus on the development of smaller pore (e.g., sub-micron) metal membranes and the significant reduction of capital and maintenance costs

Carbon nanotube based composite membranes for water desalination by membrane distillation

New technologies are required to improve desalination efficiency and increase water treatment capacities. One promising low energy technique to produce potable water from either sea or sewage water is membrane distillation (MD). However, to be competitive with other desalination processes, membranes need to be designed specifically for the MD process requirements. Here we report on the design of carbon nanotube (CNT) based composite material membranes for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The membranes were characterized and tested in a DCMD setup under different feed temperatures and test conditions. The composite CNT structures showed significantly improved performance compared to their pure self-supporting CNT counterparts. The best composite CNT membranes gave permeabilities as high as 3.3×(10 to the 12th power)kg/m s Pa) with an average salt rejection of 95% and lifespan of up to 39 h of continuous testing, making them highly promising candidates for DCMD

Silica fouling in high salinity waters in reverse osmosis desalination (sodium-silica system)

Silica fouling patterns in a sodium–silica system and the effect of pH on residual dissolved silica concentrations are reported. The unique chemical affinity between sodium and silica (SO4) prevented silica scale deposition on the membrane surface during reverse osmosis (RO) desalination. It was found that high concentrations of sodium in solutions depressed silica solubility to 81–84 mg L−1 for a maximum NaCl salinity of 60–65 g L−1. Using a range of membrane examination techniques, it was found that no silica scale formed on the RO membrane surfaces from NaCl solutions free from cations such as Ca, Al and Fe. This was considered to be the result of sodium ions acting as a barrier between polymeric silica and the membrane surface

Investigation of hybrid ion-exchange membranes reinforced with non-woven metal meshes for electro-dialysis applications

Salt and solvent permeations across ion-exchange membranes used in electro-dialysis are directly related to the membrane material structure and chemistry. Although primarily used for aqueous effluents desalination, electro-dialysis was recently shown to be a promising technology for industrial wastewater and co-solvent mixtures purification. The harsh working conditions imposed by these liquid effluents, including high suspended solids, require the development of more chemically and mechanically resistant membranes. In this study, commercial porous stainless steel media filters (240 μm thick) were used as a backbone to prepare hybrid ion-exchange membranes by casting ion-exchange materials within the porous metal structure. The surface of the metal reinforcements was modified by plasma treatment prior to sol-gel silane grafting to improve the interface between the metal and the ion-exchange resins. The morphology of novel hybrid materials and the interface between the metal fibers and the ion-exchange material have been characterized using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and FTIR mapping. The thickness of the silane coating was found to lie between 1 and 2 μm while water contact angle tests performed on membrane surfaces and corrosion test behaviors revealed the formation of a thin passivating oxide layer on the material surfaces providing anchoring for the silane grafting and adequate surface energy for the proper incorporation of the ion-exchange material. The hybrid membranes desalination performance were then tested in a bench top electro-dialysis cell over a range of flow rate, current densities and salt concentration conditions to evaluate the ability of the novel hybrid materials to desalinate model streams. The performance of the hybrid membranes were benchmarked and critically compared against commercially available membranes (Selemion™). Although the salt transfer kinetics across the hybrid ion-exchange composite membranes were shown to be comparable to that of the commercial membranes, the low porosity of the stainless steel reinforcements, around 60%, was shown to impede absolute salt permeations. The hybrid ion-exchange membranes were however found to be competitive at low current density and low flow velocity desalination conditions

Synthesis of single-crystalline LiFePO4 with rhombus-like morphology

In this investigation, carbon-coated LiFePO4 cathode materials were synthesized with a facile hydrothermal method. The structure and electrochemical properties of the materials were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Roman, transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (TEM-EDS), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). By adjusting the mixing concentration of starting materials, a single-crystalline LiFePO4 with an anisotropic rhombus morphology (Space Group: Pmnb No. 62) were successfully synthesized. In addition, the carbon coated on the surface of LiFePO4 material prepared has a lower ID/IG (0.80), which indicates an optimized carbon structure with an increased amount of sp2-type carbon. Electrochemical performance test shows that the carbon-coated LiFePO4 cathode materials have an initial discharge capacity of 146 mAh g−1 at 0.2C

Silver nanoparticles prepared by gamma irradiation across metal organic framework templates

In this study, we demonstrate for the first time the successful fabrication of well-dispersed ultrafine silver nanoparticles inside metal–organic frameworks through a single step gamma irradiation at room temperature. HKUST-1 crystals are soaked in silver nitrate aqueous solution and irradiated with a Cobalt 60 source across a range of irradiation doses to synthesize highly uniformly distributed silver nano-particles. The average size of the silver nanoparticles across the Ag@HKUST-1 materials is found to vary between 1.4 and 3 nm for dose exposures between 1 and 200 kGy, respectively. The Ag@HKUST-1 hybrid crystals exhibit strong surface plasmon resonance and are highly durable and efficient catalytic materials for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol (up to 14.46 × 10−3 s−1 for 1 kGy Ag@HKUST-1). The crystals can be easily recycled for at least five successive cycles of reaction with a conversion efficiency higher than 99.9%. The gamma irradiation is demonstrated to be an effective and environmental friendly process for the synthesis of nano-particles across confined metal–organic frameworks at room temperature with potential applications in environmental science. © 2015 The Royal Society of Chemistr

Promoted water transport across graphene oxide-poly(amide) thin film composite membranes and their antibacterial activity

Hybrid composite membranes have great potential for desalination applications since water transport can be favorably promoted by selective diffusion at the interface between matrix and reinforcement materials. In this paper, graphene oxide nano-sheets were successfully incorporated across 200nm thick poly(amide) films by interfacial polymerization to form novel thin-film composite membranes. The impact of the graphene oxide on the morphology, chemistry, and surface charge of the ultra-thin poly(amide) layer, and the ability to desalinate seawater was investigated. The graphene oxide nano-sheets were found to be well dispersed across the composite membranes, leading to a lower membrane surface energy and an enhanced hydrophilicity. The iso-electric point of the samples, key to surface charge repulsion during desalination, was found to be consistently shifted to higher pH values with an increasing graphene oxide content. Compared to a pristine poly(amide) membrane, the pure water flux across the composite membranes with 0.12wt.% of graphene oxide was also found to increase by up to 80% from 0.122 to 0.219L·μm·m-2·h-1·bar-1 without significantly affecting salt selectivity. Furthermore, the inhibitory effects of the composite membrane on microbial growth were evaluated and the novel composite membranes exhibited superior anti-microbial activity and may act as a potential anti-fouling membrane material

Applications of nano-porous graphene materials-critical review on performance and challenges

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry. The design and fabrication of 2D nano-porous architectures with controllable porosity and pore structure, as well as unique properties at the nanoscale are critical for applications such as separation, sensing, energy and catalysis. Perforation strategies across 2D materials, primarily graphene, have shown promising opportunities to develop nanostructures with tunable ranges of pore size distribution, pore density and uniformity. In addition, the perforated graphene structures exhibit improved properties in terms of plasmonic diffusion, catalytic activity and thermo-electrical properties compared to dense 2D materials and are opening new avenues for the development of responsive or reactive materials. This review presents and discusses the very recent developments in the synthesis of perforated graphene-based materials and correlates the morphology and other properties of such 2D nano-porous materials to their performance in applications such as separation, sensing and energy. Challenges related to the controlled engineering and manufacturing of such nanostructures particularly from a scalability point of view, as well as potential avenues for performance improvements through alternative 2D perforated materials are also critically evaluated

Tuning the grade of graphene: gamma ray irradiation of free-standing graphene oxide films in gaseous phase

A direct approach to functionalize and reduce pre-shaped graphene oxide 3D architectures is demonstrated by gamma ray irradiation in gaseous phase under analytical grade air, N2 or H2. The formation of radicals upon gamma ray irradiation is shown to lead to surface functionalization of the graphene oxide sheets. The reduction degree of graphene oxide, which can be controlled through varying the γ-ray total dose irradiation, leads to the synthesis of highly crystalline and near defect-free graphene based materials. The crystalline structure of the graphene oxide and γ-ray reduced graphene oxide was investigated by x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The results reveal no noticeable changes in the size of sp2 graphitic structures for the range of tested gases and total exposure doses suggesting that the irradiation in gaseous phase does not damage the graphene crystalline domains. As confirmed by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, the C/O ratio of γ-ray reduced graphene oxide is increasing from 2.37 for graphene oxide to 6.25 upon irradiation in hydrogen gas. The removal of oxygen atoms with this reduction process in hydrogen results in a sharp 400 times increase of the electrical conductivity of γ-ray reduced graphene oxide from 0.05 S cm−1 to as high as 23 S cm−1. A significant increase of the contact angle of the γ-ray reduced graphene oxide bucky-papers and weakened oxygen rich groups characteristic peaks across the Fourier transform infrared spectra further illustrate the efficacy of the γ-ray reduction process. A mechanism correlating the interaction between hydrogen radicals formed upon γ-ray irradiation of hydrogen gas and the oxygen rich groups on the surface of the graphene oxide bucky-papers is proposed, in order to contribute to the synthesis of reduced graphene materials through solution-free chemistry routes. © 2014 Elsevier B.V