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    Dual-layer membranes with a thin film hydrophilic MOF/PVA nanocomposite for enhanced antiwetting property in membrane distillation

    Year: 2021

    Journal: Desalination, Volume 518, DEC 15

    Authors: Huang, Zhen; Yang, Guang; Zhang, Jianhua; Gray, Stephen; Xie, Zongli

    Organizations: CSIRO Manufacturing and Victoria-Jiangsu Program for Technology and Innovation RD; China Scholarship Council (CSC)

    Keywords: Membrane distillation; Antiwetting; Desalination; Dual-layer membrane; Metal-organic frameworks

    Membrane distillation (MD) has been considered as a promising separation technology for desalination due to its ultrahigh rejection towards nonvolatile salts. However, pore wetting is a long-standing problem for the practical deployment of conventional hydrophobic MD membranes. Herein, hydrophilic/hydrophobic dual-layer membrane consisting of a thin hydrophilic, aluminum fumarate (AlFu) metal-organic framework (MOF) doped poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) dense layer on top of a hydrophobic microporous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) substrate layer was prepared via a facial solution casting procedure. Adjusted by the nanoporous AlFu MOF, the thin PVA based hydrophilic layer (similar to 800 nm) exhibited increased water vapor flux, reaching 45.1 kg/m(2) h while maintaining nearly complete salt rejection (99.9%) in desalting NaCl (35,000 ppm) solution (50 degrees C and 10 degrees C in the feed side and permeate side, respectively) via direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) process. Compared with the PTFE membrane, the dual-layer membranes possessed enhanced wetting resistance towards low-surfacetension solution by exhibiting stable throughput and salt rejection until 65% water recovery whereas the permeate conductivity of PTFE membrane increased substantially to 145 mu S/cm at only 20% water recovery. Furthermore, the stability of the dual-layer membrane was assessed using real seawater in a 48 h DCMD test, showing no decline in water vapor flux and salt rejection while the permeate conductivity increased to 100 mu S/cm for PTFE membrane. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using mixed matrix material as the top layer for designing high-performance MD membranes with outstanding antiwetting property.
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