Water as the Pore Former in the Synthesis of Hydrophobic PVDF Flat Sheet Membranes for Use in Membrane Distillation


Updated time: 2019-10-15

【Summary】 Although PVDF fiat shet membranes hve been widely tested in MD, their synthesis and modifications currently require inrased use of gren and inexpensive materials. In this study, flat sheet PVDF membranes were synthesized using phase inversion and wter as the pore fomer.Re-markably, the water added in the casting solution improved the mambrane pore sizes; where the maximum pore size was0.58 um.Also,the incor. poration of f-SiO2NPs in the mambrance matrix considerably enhanced the membrane hydophobicity Specifically, the membnne conact angles increased from 96° to 1539,Additionally, other parameters investigated were mchanical strength and liquid entry pressure(LEP). The maximum recorded values wae 2.26 MR and 239 kPa,respectively.The modified membranes (i.e, using water as the pore former and f.SiO2NPs)were the most efficient， showing maæimum salt rjection of 99.9% and water flux of 11.6LMH; thus,indicating their capability to be used as dficent ma-trials for the recovery of high purity water in MD.


【Keywords】 Direct contact membrane distilation PVDF flat sheet membranes Superhydrophobic silica nanoparticles Water as the pore former


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