Electro-assisted CNTs/ceramic flat sheet ultrafiltration membrane for enhanced antifouling and separation performance

doi:10.1007/s11783-020-1303-4

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2021, Vol. 15

Issue (1) : 11 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1303-4

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Electro-assisted CNTs/ceramic flat sheet ultrafiltration membrane for enhanced antifouling and separation performance

Shuo Wei, Lei Du, Shuo Chen, Hongtao Yu, Xie Quan(

)

Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (Ministry of Education, China), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

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Abstract

• A stable and electroconductive CNTs/ceramic membrane was fabricated.

• The membrane with the electro-assistance exhibited optimal fouling mitigation.

• The removal efficiency was improved by the -2.0 V electro-assistance.

• Electro-assisted filtration is energy-saving than that of commercial membrane.

Ultrafiltration is employed as an important process for water treatment and reuse, which is of great significance to alleviate the shortage of water resources. However, it suffers from severe membrane fouling and the trade-off between selectivity and permeability. In this work, a CNTs/ceramic flat sheet ultrafiltration membrane coupled with electro-assistance was developed for improving the antifouling and separation performance. The CNTs/ceramic flat sheet membrane was fabricated by coating cross-linked CNTs on ceramic membrane, featuring a good electroconductivity of 764.75 S/m. In the filtration of natural water, the permeate flux of the membrane with the cell voltage of -2.0 V was 1.8 times higher than that of the membrane without electro-assistance and 5.7-fold greater than that of the PVDF commercial membrane. Benefiting from the electro-assistance, the removal efficiency of the typical antibiotics was improved by 50%. Furthermore, the electro-assisted membrane filtration process showed 70% reduction in energy consumption compared with the filtration process of the commercial membrane. This work offers a feasible approach for membrane fouling mitigation and effluent quality improvement and suggests that the electro-assisted CNTs/ceramic membrane filtration process has great potential in the application of water treatment.

Keywords Ultrafiltration Electro-assistance CNTs Membrane fouling mitigation

Corresponding Author(s): Xie Quan

Issue Date: 30 July 2020

Cite this article:

Shuo Wei,Lei Du,Shuo Chen, et al. Electro-assisted CNTs/ceramic flat sheet ultrafiltration membrane for enhanced antifouling and separation performance[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2021, 15(1): 11.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-020-1303-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2021/V15/I1/11

Fig.1 (a) Schematic of electro-assisted membrane filtration equipment; (b) Top view of the membrane cell; (c) Digital picture of the electro-assistant membrane filtration equipment.

Fig.2 (a) Digital pictures of pristine ceramic membranes and the CNTs/ceramic membranes; The SEM images of (b) the surface of pristine ceramic membrane, (c) the surface of CNTs/ceramic membrane and (d) the cross section of CNTs/ceramic membrane.

Fig.3 C 1s XPS spectra of (a) acidized CNTs and (b) cross-linked CNTs on the CNTs/ceramic membrane; (c) FTIR spectra of acidized CNTs and cross-linked CNTs on the CNTs/ceramic membrane.

Fig.4 (a) Thicknesses and (b) pure water fluxes of the CNTs/ceramic membrane with different CNTs loadings.

Fig.5 (a) Pure water fluxes of the CNTs/ceramic membranes with different cross-linking times; (b) Pure water fluxes and (c) average pore sizes of the membranes heat-treated at different temperatures.

Fig.6 (a) Normalized fluxes of the CNTs/ceramic membrane at different operating pressures; (b) Normalized fluxes of the membrane at different cell voltages; (c) Cyclic voltammetry curve of the membrane in the absence and presence of HA; (d) Normalized fluxes of the membrane under different electrode distances.

Fig.7 (a) The variations of the permeate fluxes of the commercial PVDF membrane, CNTs/ceramic membrane and CNTs/ceramic membrane with the cell voltage of -2 V in the reservoir water filtration; SEM images of the surface of CNTs/ceramic membrane (b) without and (c) with the electro-assistance.

Fig.8 (a) TOC, (b) turbidity and (c) total bacteria in the influent and the effluents of the commercial PVDF membrane, CNTs/ceramic membrane and CNTs/ceramic membrane with the cell voltage of -2 V in the reservoir water filtration.

Tab.1 Removal rates of typical antibiotics

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