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    Robust Superhydrophobic Membrane for Membrane Distillation with Excellent Scaling Resistance

    Year: 2019

    Journal: Environ. Sci. Technol., Volume 53, OCT 15, page 11801–11809

    Authors: Su, Chunlei; Horseman, Thomas; Cao, Hongbin; Christie, Kofi; Li, Yuping; Lin, Shihong

    Organizations: China Scholarship CouncilChina Scholarship Council [201804910753]; American Chemical Society Petroleum Research FoundationAmerican Chemical Society [ACS-PRF 57353]; National Science Foundation via an NSF-GRFP awardNational Science Foundation (NSF) [DGE-1145194]; National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [1705048]

    We report in this study a scalable and controllable approach for fabricating robust and high-performance superhydrophobic membranes for membrane distillation (MD). This novel approach combines electro-co-spinning/spraying (ES2) with chemical vapor welding and enables the formation of robust superhydrophobic (r-SH) membranes that are mechanically strong, highly porous, and robustly superhydrophobic. Compared with superhydrophobic membranes obtained using surface deposition of fluorinated nanoparticles, the r-SH membranes have more robust wetting properties and higher vapor permeability in MD. MD scaling experiments with sodium chloride and gypsum show that the r-SH membrane is highly effective in mitigating mineral scaling. Finally, we also discuss the mechanism of scaling resistance enabled by superhydrophobic membranes with a highlight on the roles of the surface-bound air layer in reducing the crystal-membrane contact area, nucleation propensity, and ion-membrane contact time.
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