Development of Membrane Filters with Nanostructured Porous Layer by Coating of Metal Nanoparticles Sintered onto a Micro-Filter

The membrane filter adhered with nanostructured porous layer was made by heat treatment after deposition of nanoparticle-agglomerates sintered in aerosol phase onto a conventional micron-fibrous metal filter as a substrate filter. The Sintered-Nanoparticle-Agglomerates-coated NanoStructured porous layer Membrane Filter (SNA-NSMF), whose the filtration performance was improved compared with the conventional metal membrane filters, was developed by adhesion of nanoparticle-agglomerates of dendrite structure sintered onto the micron-fibrous metal filter. The size of nanoparticle-agglomerates of dendrite structure decreased with increasing the sintering temperature because nanoparticle-agglomerates shrank. When shrinking nanoparticle-agglomerates were deposited and treated with heat onto the conventional micron-fibrous metal filter, pore size of nanostructured porous layer decreased. Therefore, pressure drops of SNA-NSMFs increased from 0.3 to 0.516 kPa and filtration efficiencies remarkably increased from 95.612 to 99.9993%.