| 1. |
- Aguilar-Sanchez, Andrea, et al.
(författare)
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Waterborne nanocellulose coatings for improving the antifouling and antibacterial properties of polyethersulfone membranes
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 620
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents a waterborne nanocellulose coating process to change the surface characteristics and mitigate fouling of commercially available polyethersulfone (PES) microfiltration membranes. An extensive comparative study between nanoporous and nano-textured layers composed of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) or TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils (T-CNF), which were coated on the PES membrane by taking advantage of the electrostatic interactions between the PES substrate, a polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAHC1) anchoring layer, and the nanocellulose functional layer. Coated PES membranes exhibited decreased surface roughness and pore sizes as well as rejection of compounds with a M-w above 150 kDa, while the water permeability and mechanical properties of remained largely unaffected. The coatings improved the wettability as confirmed by a reduction of the contact angle by up to 52% and exhibited a higher negative surface charge compared to the uncoated membranes over a pH range of 4-8. A significant reduction in organic fouling was observed for the coated membranes demonstrated by bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption studies on T-CNF and CNC surfaces using Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation monitoring (QCM-D), UV-vis spectroscopy and FTIR mapping after exposing the membranes to dynamic adsorption of BSA. The T-CNF coating exhibited effective antibacterial action against Escherichia coli (E. coli) attributed to the pH reduction effect induced by the carboxyl groups; while CNC coatings did not show this property. This work demonstrates a simple, green, and easy-to-scale layer-by-layer coating process to tune the membrane rejection and to improve antifouling and antibacterial properties of commercially available membranes.
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| 2. |
- Arandia, Kenneth Gacutno, 1990, et al.
(författare)
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Fouling characteristics of microcrystalline cellulose during cross-flow microfiltration: Insights from fluid dynamic gauging and molecular dynamics simulations
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-3123 .- 0376-7388. ; 669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The fouling behaviour of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) particles on polyethersulfone (PES) membranes was investigated using fluid dynamic gauging (FDG) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Experimental cross-flow microfiltration (MF) of a dilute MCC suspension at 400 mbar transmembrane pressure using 0.45 μm PES membranes revealed an estimated fouling layer thickness of 616 ± 5 μm for both fouled and re-fouled membranes at an applied shear stress of 37 ± 2 Pa. A decline in pure water flux was observed after each membrane cleaning and flushing procedure, indicating that highly resilient layers were formed close to the membrane surface. A possible explanation for the formation of resilient cellulose layers was obtained through MD simulations of the free energy profiles, which predicted deep energy minima at close interparticle separations of the cellulose–cellulose and cellulose–PES systems. The consequence of this energy minima is that attractive and repulsive forces are in balance at a specific distance between the particles, suggesting high binding energy at close interparticle distances. This implies that a certain force is needed to remove the layer or redisperse the cellulose particles. MD simulations also suggested that contributions made by repulsive hydration forces negatively influenced the adsorption of cellulose particles onto the PES membrane. These results highlight how experimental FDG measurements, when complemented with MD simulations, can provide insights into the fouling behaviour of an organic model material during cross-flow filtration.
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| 3. |
- Essalhi, Mohamed, et al.
(författare)
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Gamma-irradiated janus electrospun nanofiber membranes for desalination and nuclear wastewater treatment
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 700
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study presents the fabrication of double-layer electrospun nanofibrous membranes (DL-ENMs) using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyether sulfone (PES) based polymers with different degrees of hydrophilicity (PES, sulfonated PES, and PES with hydroxyl terminals). A comparative analysis was carried out with single-layer electrospun nanofiber membranes (SL-ENM) with a total thickness of about 375 μm. Using feed solutions, including sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, and simulated nuclear wastewater (SNWW), the performance of DL-ENMs was evaluated for desalination and radionuclide decontamination by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) and air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) techniques. The results showed that DL-ENMs, especially those incorporating a sulfonated PES-based hydrophilic layer, exhibited superior permeate fluxes, reaching values of 72.72 kg/m2h and 73.27 kg/m2h in the DCMD using aqueous feed solutions of NaCl and NaNO3, respectively, and 70.80 kg/m2h and 41.96 kg/m2h using aqueous feed solutions of SNWW in DCMD and AGMD, respectively. Both SL-ENMs and DL-ENMs exhibited high rejection efficiencies and decontamination factors for the feed solutions (>99.9%). In addition, the prepared ENMs were exposed to gamma radiation to evaluate their applicability in real-life applications. The result of irradiation revealed the negative impact of gamma radiation on the fluorine content of PVDF which could be a critical point in using PVDF as a hydrophobic material for decontaminating nuclear wastewater by membrane distillation.
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| 4. |
- Essalhi, Mohamed, et al.
(författare)
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Gamma-irradiated janus electrospun nanofiber membranes for desalination and nuclear wastewater treatment
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 700
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study presents the fabrication of double-layer electrospun nanofibrous membranes (DL-ENMs) using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyether sulfone (PES) based polymers with different degrees of hydrophilicity (PES, sulfonated PES, and PES with hydroxyl terminals). A comparative analysis was carried out with single-layer electrospun nanofiber membranes (SL-ENM) with a total thickness of about 375 μm. Using feed solutions, including sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, and simulated nuclear wastewater (SNWW), the performance of DL-ENMs was evaluated for desalination and radionuclide decontamination by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) and air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) techniques. The results showed that DL-ENMs, especially those incorporating a sulfonated PES-based hydrophilic layer, exhibited superior permeate fluxes, reaching values of 72.72 kg/m2.h and 73.27 kg/m2.h in the DCMD using aqueous feed solutions of NaCl and NaNO3, respectively, and 70.80 kg/m2.h and 41.96 kg/m2.h using aqueous feed solutions of SNWW in DCMD and AGMD, respectively. Both SL-ENMs and DL-ENMs exhibited high rejection efficiencies and decontamination factors for the feed solutions (>99.9%). In addition, the prepared ENMs were exposed to gamma radiation to evaluate their applicability in real-life applications. The result of irradiation revealed the negative impact of gamma radiation on the fluorine content of PVDF which could be a critical point in using PVDF as a hydrophobic material for decontaminating nuclear wastewater by membrane distillation.
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| 5. |
- Hedlund, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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The origin of the surface barrier in nanoporous materials
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 641
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Surface barriers are influencing the mass transfer in nanopores, but their origin is unclear and can be quite different in different materials. For MFI and CHA membranes studied here, we show that the surface barrier may be a surface diffusion process with higher activation energy than the surface diffusion process in the pores, but other possible mechanisms such as pore blocking and pore narrowing has not been ruled out. The higher activation energy is probably a result of less interaction between adsorbed molecules at the pore mouth than inside the pores, i.e. the barrier is simply a geometrical effect in these materials. For pure components at low concentration in MFI zeolite, we found that barrier is proportional to the product of the molecular weight and heat of desorption. For MFI and CHA zeolite, we observed that the barrier is a function of concentration and approach zero at high concentration and that the barriers of the components become more similar due to interaction between the components in mixtures, which explains the high and selective mass transfer displayed by these nanoporous materials at high concentration.
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| 6. |
- Ismail, Norafiqah, et al.
(författare)
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Investigating the potential of membranes formed by the vapor induced phase separation process
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 597
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- About 100 years ago, Zsigmondy and Bachmann invented a new method to induce phase inversion, the so-called vapor induced phase separation (VIPS). Since then many researchers have demonstrated this method in membrane fabrication. Here we present a review on membrane fabrication via VIPS to provide insights into membrane formation parameters in order to achieve desired properties for different applications. The key factors upon membrane preparation including solution parameters (i.e. polymer type and concentration, type of solvent, and additives) as well as operating parameters (i.e. exposure time, relative humidity, dissolution temperature, and vapor temperature) are comprehensively discussed. Furthermore, the design of a fouling-resistance membrane by the VIPS process has recently gained attention and is elaborated in details. The applications of the produced membranes via VIPS in water and wastewater treatment, gas separations, electrochemical applications (i.e. secondary batteries and supercapacitors) as well as in medical and biological applications are summarized and an outlook for future investigation is presented.
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| 7. |
- Ismail, Norafiqah, et al.
(författare)
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Non-ionic deep eutectic solvents for membrane formation
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 646
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have recently emerged as a new class of inexpensive biodegradable solvents and additives with diverse applications. In this study, a new family of non-ionic deep eutectic solvents (NIDES) is proposed for the first time for membrane preparation. Three types of NIDES, N-methylacetamide-acetamide (DES-1), N-methyl acetamide-N-methyl urea (DES-2), and N-methyl acetamide-N,N′-dimethyl urea (DES-3) were synthesized and used to dissolve polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer. The effects of the additive polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and the type of NIDES on the PVDF membrane characteristics, water permeability and bovine serum albumin (BSA) separation were studied. The membranes prepared with DES-1 and 2 wt% PVP exhibited a good water permeate flux (96.82 L/m2.h) and a high BSA separation factor (96.32%). High performance PVDF membranes can thus be efficiently prepared using biodegradable inexpensive NIDES.
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| 8. |
- Khataee, Amirreza, et al.
(författare)
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Poly(arylene alkylene)s functionalized with perfluorosulfonic acid groups as proton exchange membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 671
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the aim to develop vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) membranes beyond state of the art, we have in the present work functionalized poly(p-terphenylene)s with highly acidic perfluorosulfonic groups and investigated their performance as proton exchange membranes (PEMs). Consequently, two poly(p-terphenylene alkylene)s tethered with perfluoroalkylsulfonic acid and perfluorophenylsulfonic acid, respectively, were synthesized through superacid-mediated polyhydroxyalkylations and cast into PEMs. Compared with Nafion 212, the PEM carrying perfluorophenylsulfonic acid groups (PTPF-Phenyl-SA) was found to exhibit higher ionic conductivity and eight times lower vanadium (IV) permeation rate. The latter explains the longer self-discharge duration of the VRFB based on the PTPF-Phenyl-SA. In addition, the VRFB assembled with the PTPF-Phenyl-SA PEM exhibited a high average coulombic efficiency of 99.6% for over 100 cycles with a capacity fade of 0.24% per cycle, which was 50% lower than when Nafion 212 was used. More importantly, excellent capacity retention was achieved through electrochemical rate performance experiments at different current densities.
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| 9. |
- Lu, Yahua, et al.
(författare)
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Heterostructure membranes of high permeability and stability assembled from MXene and modified layered double hydroxide nanosheets
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 688
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two-dimensional (2D) MXene-based lamellar membranes play transformative roles in membrane filtration technology. Their practical use in water treatment is however hindered by several hurdles, e.g., unfavorable swelling due to weak interactions between adjacent MXene nanosheets, tortuous diffusion pathways of layered stacking, and the intrinsic aquatic oxidation-prone nature of MXene. Herein, nanoporous 2D/2D heterostructure membranes are elaborately constructed via solution-phase assembly of oppositely charged MXene and modified layered double hydroxide (MLDH) nanosheets. As a multifunctional component, positively charged holey MLDH nanosheets were first tailor-made to serve simultaneously as a binder, spacer and surface-modifier; next they were intercalated into negatively charged MXene lamella to enhance structural stability and mass transfer of membranes. As a result, the as-prepared MLDH@MXene heterostructure membranes successfully break the persistent trade-off between high permeability and selectivity while mitigating the common drawbacks in 2D MXene-based lamellar membranes, e.g., swelling issues, restacking problems, and vulnerable chemical stability. Noticeably, at an operating pressure of 4 bar and a feed solution of 100 ppm of Congo red, the heterostructure membranes enable a threefold jump in permeability (332.7 +/- 20 L m(-2) h(-1 )bar(-1)) when compared to the pristine MXene membrane (119.3 +/- 18 L m(-2 )h(-1) bar(-1)), and better operational stability without compromising the rejection.
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| 10. |
- Ma, Wenzhong, et al.
(författare)
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Membrane formation by thermally induced phase separation : materials, involved parameters, modeling, current efforts and future directions
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Membrane Science. - : Elsevier. - 0376-7388 .- 1873-3123. ; 669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) is one of the most popular methods considered for membrane preparation. Since its introduction by Castro in 1981, there has been significant progress in understanding, controlling, and implementing TIPS. This review provides a critical and integrative evaluation of the literature in this area that effectively defines the current state-of-the-art. It begins with an overview of the basic principles of TIPS and the used materials (polymers, diluents and additives) paying particular attention to the sustainability of the TIPS process. The subsequent sections examine the parameters affecting the outcome of TIPS technique, the role of mass transfer, and methods for modeling TIPS. This is followed by a discussion of current and potential applications of TIPS membranes. Finally, the review concludes with a discussion of likely future developments and prospects for the TIPS process.
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