4.6 Article

Omniphobic Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane Decorated with a ZnO Nano Sea Urchin Structure: Performance Against Surfactant-Wetting in Membrane Distillation

Journal

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH
Volume 61, Issue 5, Pages 2237-2244

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.1c04502

Keywords

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Funding

  1. Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [E1E40503]
  2. National Natural Science Foundation of China [41473098]

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Membrane distillation, an emerging desalination technology, has great potential for treating high-salinity industrial wastewater. However, the wetting of hydrophobic membranes has posed a major challenge. In this study, an omniphobic membrane was prepared by growing nano-ZnO needles on a PVDF membrane surface, followed by fluorination. The modified membrane exhibited superior antiwetting properties and high salt rejection, making it promising for treating high-salinity wastewaters containing surface-active substances.
Membrane distillation, an emerging desalination technology, shows much promise for treating industrial wastewater with high salinity. One major challenge that impedes its implementation for industrial applications is the wetting of hydrophobic membranes such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), resulting in a sharp decline in salt rejection. Wetting occurs when the feed solution contains surfactants, such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). It has been demonstrated that growing rough structures on the membrane surface followed by fluorination helps the membrane maintain its hydrophobicity. In this study, an omniphobic membrane was successfully prepared by first growing a layer of dense nano-ZnO needles on the surface of a pristine PVDF membrane, followed by a typical fluorination treatment. The modified membrane, with its surface similar to a nano sea urchin in appearance, exhibited a superior antiwetting property, having a high contact angle about 160 degrees against a 50 g/L NaCl solution containing 0.3 mM SDS. The modified membrane showed a fairly good wetting resistance against 0.3 mM SDS, having a nearly 100% salt rejection in treating 50 g/L NaCl, whereas the pristine PVDF membrane could be easily wetted. The modified PVDF membrane shows promise in treating high-salinity wastewaters containing surface-active substances.

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