Contact
    Start Publications Interfacial Wettability Regulation Enables One-Step Upcycling ...
    ←  Publication Finder
    QSense

    Interfacial Wettability Regulation Enables One-Step Upcycling of the End-of-Life Polymeric Microfiltration Membrane

    Year: 2022

    Journal: ACS ES&T Eng.

    Authors: Dai, Ruobin; Chen, Jiansuxuan; Han, Hongyi; Zhou, Huimin; Wang, Zhiwei

    Organizations: National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China; [2019YFC0408200]; [51925806]; [52200108]

    Keywords: end-of-life membrane; surfactant regulation; interfacial polymerization; membrane recycling; nanofiltration

    Polymeric membranes, which are typically synthesized from fossil-based polymers, will reach their end of life (EOL) and then be replaced, due to the inevitable accumulation of membrane fouling even though the periodic cleaning is applied. The conventional disposal methods of the EOL membranes are landfilling and incineration, which will lead to additional carbon emission and fossil resource depletion. Herein, we proposed a surfactant-regulated interfacial polymerization strategy, by adding sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) in the piperazine (PIP) aqueous solution, for the one-step upcycling of the EOL polymeric microfiltration membrane to obtain a thin-film composite polyamide (PA) nanofiltration (NF) membrane. Revealed by the quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation analysis and molecular dynamics simulation, the presence of SDBS reduced interfacial tension (IFT) and regulated interfacial wettability, thereby facilitating adequate and uniform uptake of PIP monomers. The resulting upcycled NF membrane with 4 critical micelle concentration (CMC) of SDBS addition exhibited a favorable pure water permeance (20.1 +/- 0.6 L m-2 h-1 bar-1) and a satisfactory Na2SO4 rejection of 98.6 +/- 0.4% owing to the formation of a continuous PA layer with high cross-linking degree (89.3 +/- 0.5%). The Na2SO4 permeability of the 4 CMC upcycled NF membrane was more than 1 magnitude lower than that of the upcycled NF membrane without SDBS addition. This study provides a facile, rapid, and cost-effective method for the one-step upcycling of EOL polymeric membranes, which thus improves the sustainability of membrane technology.
    View publication