Abstract
Highly efficient Si3N4 ceramic planar membrane for water desalination process using membrane distillation was prepared by the dual-layer phase inversion tape casting and sintering method. In comparison with typical phase inversion tape casting method, the green tape was formed using Si3N4 slurry on the top and graphite slurry on the bottom. After consuming away the graphite structure, a ceramic membrane consisting of a two-layered structure (skin and finger-like layers) was obtained. The skin layer was relatively tight, and thus could act as a functional layer for separation, while the finger-like layer contained straight open pores with a diameter of 100 μm, acting as a support with low transport resistance. For comparison, typical Si3N4 ceramic membrane was fabricated by phase inversion technique without graphite substrate, resulting in a three-layered structure (skin, finger-like, and sponge layers). After membrane modification from hydrophilic to hydrophobic with polymer derived nanoparticle method, the water desalination performance of the membranes was tested using the sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD) with different NaCl feed solutions. With the increase of salt content from 4 to 12 wt%, the water flux decreased slightly while rejection rate maintained over 99.99%. Comparing with typical three-layered Si3N4 membrane, an excellent water flux enhancement of over 83% was resulted and the rejection rate remained over 99.99%.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Kim SJ, Ko SH, Kang KH, et al. Direct seawater desalination by ion concentration polarization. Nat Nanotechnol 2010, 5: 297–301.
Li X, Yu X, Cheng C, et al. Electrospun superhydrophobic organic/inorganic composite nanofibrous membranes for membrane distillation. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2015, 7: 21919–21930.
Subramani A, Jacangelo JG. Emerging desalination technologies for water treatment: A critical review. Water Res 2015, 75: 164–187.
Lawson KW, Lloyd DR. Membrane distillation. J Membrane Sci 1997, 124: 1–25.
Khayet M. Membranes and theoretical modeling of membrane distillation: A review. Adv Colloid Interfac 2011, 164: 56–88.
Eykens L, De Sitter K, Dotremont C, et al. Membrane synthesis for membrane distillation: A review. Sep Purif Technol 2017, 182: 36–51.
Liao Y, Loh C-H, Wang R, et al. Electrospun superhydrophobic membranes with unique structures for membrane distillation. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2014, 6: 16035–16048.
Lin S, Nejati S, Boo C, et al. Omniphobic membrane for robust membrane distillation. Environ Sci Technol Lett 2014, 1: 443–447.
Zhou T, Yao Y, Xiang R, et al. Formation and characterization of polytetrafluoroethylene nanofiber membranes for vacuum membrane distillation. J Membrane Sci 2014, 453: 402–408.
Krivoshapkina EF, Krivoshapkin PV, Vedyagin AA. Synthesis of Al2O3–SiO2–MgO ceramics with hierarchical porous structure. J Adv Ceram 2017, 6: 11–19.
Liu X, Demir NK, Wu Z, et al. Highly water-stable zirconium metal-organic Framework UiO-66 membranes supported on alumina hollow fibers for desalination. J Am Chem Soc 2015, 137: 6999–7002.
Zhang J-W, Fang H, Wang JW, et al. Preparation and characterization of silicon nitride hollow fiber membranes for seawater desalination. J Membrane Sci 2014, 450: 197–206.
Kujawa J, Kujawski W, Koter S, et al. Membrane distillation properties of TiO2 ceramic membranes modified by perfluoroalkylsilanes. Desalin Water Treat 2013, 51: 1352–1361.
Kujawa J, Cerneaux S, Koter S, et al. Highly efficient hydrophobic titania ceramic membranes for water desalination. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2014, 6: 14223–14230.
Kujawa J, Cerneaux S, Kujawski W, et al. Hydrophobic ceramic membranes for water desalination. Appl Sci 2017, 7: 402–413.
García-Fernández L, Wang B, García-Payo MC, et al. Morphological design of alumina hollow fiber membranes for desalination by air gap membrane distillation. Desalination 2017, 420: 226–240.
Wang J-W, Li L, Gu J-Q, et al. Highly stable hydrophobic SiNCO nanoparticle-modified silicon nitride membrane for zero-discharge water desalination. AIChE J 2017, 63: 1272–1277.
Ren C, Fang H, Gu J, et al. Preparation and characterization of hydrophobic alumina planar membranes for water desalination. J Eur Ceram Soc 2015, 35: 723–730.
Jakobs E, Koros WJ. Ceramic membrane characterization via the bubble point technique. J Membrane Sci 1997, 124: 149–159.
Kujawski W, Adamczak P, Narebska A. A fully automated system for the determination of pore size distribution in microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes. Separ Sci Technol 1989, 24: 495–506.
Wang J-W, Li L, Zhang J-W, et al. ß-SiAlON ceramic hollow fiber membranes with high strength and low thermal conductivity for membrane distillation. J Eur Ceram Soc 2016, 36: 59–65.
Zhang J, Dow N, Duke M, et al. Identification of material and physical features of membrane distillation membranes for high performance desalination. J Membrane Sci 2010, 349: 295–303.
Kritikaki A, Tsetsekou A, Fabrication of porous alumina ceramics from powder mixtures with sol–gel derived nanometer alumina: Effect of mixing method. J Eur Ceram Soc 2009, 29: 1603–1611.
Qi H, Fan Y, Xing W, et al. Effect of TiO2 doping on the characteristics of macroporous Al2O3/TiO2 membrane supports. J Eur Ceram Soc 2010, 30: 1317–1325.
Khayet M, Godino P, Mengual JI. Nature of flow on sweeping gas membrane distillation. J Membrane Sci 2000, 170: 243–255.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51372238, U1732115, and 11435012), the CNPC-CAS Strategic Cooperation Research Program (Grant No. 2015A-4812), and demonstration project of key technologies for EOR of carbonate oil and gas fields in Tarim Basin (national major project of China, Grant No. 2016ZX05053).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Rights and permissions
Open Access The articles published in this journal are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Tao, S., Xu, YD., Gu, JQ. et al. Preparation of high-efficiency ceramic planar membrane and its application for water desalination. J Adv Ceram 7, 117–123 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0263-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0263-7