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Nanomaterials
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Nanofiltration Membranes
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Nanofiltration Membranes

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Nanoscience and Nanotechnology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 7983

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Quanfu An

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Beijing Key Laboratory for Green Catalysis and Separation, College of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, China
Interests: separation membranes; nanoparticles doped membrane fabrication; membrane process; 2D materials; polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles
Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe P. Gabriel

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, 91190 Saint-Aubin, France
Interests: nanosciences; nanotechnologies; chemical nanosensors; self-assembly; inorganic liquid crystals; nanotubes; nanoparticles; nanosheet; microfluidics; recycling; nanoporous materials; nanofiltration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nanofiltration (NF) as an environment-friendly, low energy consumption and high-efficient separation technology has attracted increasing research attention. It has been widely applied in the desalination of brackish and sea-water, removal of contaminated inorganic salts and organic substances from municipal and industrial wastewater, and purification and concentration of petrochemical and biopharmaceutical products, etc. NF membranes are the core elements and the source technology that dictates the performance of the nanofiltration process. Various aspects of NF membranes have been explored in recent years. NF is an extremely complex process and is dependent on the microhydrodynamic and interfacial events occurring at the membrane surface and within the membrane nanopores. NF membranes mainly depends on the separation mechanism of steric repulsive, Donnan, dielectric exclusion and facilitated transport effects to achieve high separation performance. To developing NF membranes with higher selectivity and permeability, better mechanical/thermal stability and antifouling capability, various nanomaterials, biomimetic techniques, and advanced membrane preparation methods have been developed.

This Special Issue of Nanomaterials aims to collect state-of-the-art work on nanofiltration membranes, from a fundamental and application perspective. The format of expected articles includes full papers, communications, and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Quanfu An
Prof. Dr. Jean-Christophe P. Gabriel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nanomaterials for nanofiltration membranes
  • mixed matrix membranes for nanofiltration
  • nanochannel membranes for nanofiltration
  • biomimetic and bioinspired nanofiltration membranes
  • facilitated transport nanofiltration membranes
  • anti-fouling nanofiltration membranes
  • organic solvent nanofiltration
  • novel fabrication and characterization methods for nanofiltration membranes
  • industrial applications and scale-up

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3447 KiB  
Article
Improvement of Aerosol Filtering Performance of PLLA/PAN Composite Fiber with Gradient Structure
by Ping Zhu, Wang Sun and Yunchun Liu
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(22), 4087; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12224087 - 20 Nov 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1319
Abstract
Since commercial non-woven air filtering materials have unstable filtering efficiency and poor moisture permeability for the abundant condensed aerosol particles in the highly humid atmospheric environment, the PLLA/PAN composite fiber material with a hydrophobic and hydrophilic gradient structure is designed and prepared by [...] Read more.
Since commercial non-woven air filtering materials have unstable filtering efficiency and poor moisture permeability for the abundant condensed aerosol particles in the highly humid atmospheric environment, the PLLA/PAN composite fiber material with a hydrophobic and hydrophilic gradient structure is designed and prepared by using electrode sputtering electro spinning technology. By characterizing and testing the filtrating effect of SEM, XRD, FTIR, wettability, mechanical property, N2 adsorption isotherm, and BET surface area, NaCl aerosol of PLLA fiber, PAN fiber, and PLLA/PAN composite fiber membranes, the study found that the electrode sputtering electrospinning is fine, the fiber mesh is dense, and fiber distribution is uniform when the diameter of the PAN fiber is 140–300 nm, and the PLLA fiber is 700–850 nm. In this case, PLLA/PAN composite fiber materials gather the hydrophobicity of PLLA fiber and the hydrophilicity of PAN fiber; its electrostatic effect is stable, its physical capturing performance is excellent, it can realize the step filtration of gas-solid liquid multiphase flow to avoid the rapid increase of air resistance in a high-humidity environment, and the filtrating efficiency η of NaCl aerosol particles with 0.3 μm reaches 99.98%, and the quality factor QF 0.0968 Pa−1. The manufacturing of PLLA/PAN composite fiber material provides a new method for designing and developing high-performance air filtration materials and a new technical means for the large-scale production of high-performance, high-stability, and low-cost polylactic acid nanofiber composites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanofiltration Membranes)
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14 pages, 6588 KiB  
Article
CNTs Intercalated LDH Composite Membrane for Water Purification with High Permeance
by Qian Li, Peng Song, Yuye Yang, Yan Li, Naixin Wang and Quanfu An
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(1), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12010059 - 26 Dec 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2924
Abstract
The pursuit of improved water purification technology has motivated extensive research on novel membrane materials to be carried out. In this paper, one-dimensional carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were intercalated into the interlayer space of layered double hydroxide (LDH) to form a composite membrane [...] Read more.
The pursuit of improved water purification technology has motivated extensive research on novel membrane materials to be carried out. In this paper, one-dimensional carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were intercalated into the interlayer space of layered double hydroxide (LDH) to form a composite membrane for water purification. The CNTs/LDH laminates were deposited on the surface of the hydrolyzed polyacrylonitrile (PAN) ultrafiltration membrane through a vacuum-assisted assembly strategy. Based on the characterization of the morphology and structure of the CNTs/LDH composite membrane, it was found that the intercalation of CNT created more mass transfer channels for water molecules. Moreover, the permeance of the CNTs/LDH membrane was improved by more than 50% due to the low friction and rapid flow of water molecules in the CNT tubes. Additionally, the influence of preparation conditions on the separation performance was investigated using Evans blue (EB). Optimized fabrication conditions were given (the concentration of CoAl-LDH was 0.1 g/L and the weight ratio of CNTs was 2 wt.%). Next, the separation performances of the prepared CNTs/LDH composite membrane were evaluated using both single and mixed dye solutions. The results showed that the composite membrane obtained possessed a retention of 98% with a permeance of 2600 kg/(m2·h·MPa) for EB, which was improved by 36% compared with the pristine LDH composite membrane. Moreover, the stability of the CNTs/LDH composite membrane was investigated in 100 h with no obvious permeance drop (less than 13%), which exhibited its great potential in water purification. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanofiltration Membranes)
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16 pages, 22220 KiB  
Article
A Facile Co-Deposition Approach to Construct Functionalized Graphene Quantum Dots Self-Cleaning Nanofiltration Membranes
by Tong Yu, Chenpu Wu, Zhongyan Chen, Mingen Zhang, Zhuan Hong, Honghui Guo, Wenyao Shao and Quanling Xie
Nanomaterials 2022, 12(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12010041 - 23 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2784
Abstract
In this study, a novel photocatalytic self-cleaning nanofiltration (NF) membrane was fabricated by constructing aspartic acid-functionalized graphene quantum dots (AGQDs) into the polydopamine/polyethyleneimine (PDA/PEI) selective layer via the co-deposition method. The chemical composition, microstructure, and hydrophilicity of the prepared membranes were characterized by [...] Read more.
In this study, a novel photocatalytic self-cleaning nanofiltration (NF) membrane was fabricated by constructing aspartic acid-functionalized graphene quantum dots (AGQDs) into the polydopamine/polyethyleneimine (PDA/PEI) selective layer via the co-deposition method. The chemical composition, microstructure, and hydrophilicity of the prepared membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), attenuated total reflection (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and water contact angle (WCA). Meanwhile, the effects of PEI molecular weight and AGQDs concentration on NF membrane structures and separation performance were systematically investigated. The photocatalytic self-cleaning performance of the PDA/PEI/AGQDs membrane was evaluated in terms of flux recovery rate. For constructing high-performance NF membranes, it is found that the optimal molecular weight of PEI is 10,000 Da, and the optimal concentration of AGQDs is 2000 ppm. The introduction of hydrophilic AGQDs formed a more hydrophilic and dense selective layer during the co-deposition process. Compared with the PDA/PEI membrane, the engineered PDA/PEI/AGQDs NF membrane has enhanced water flux (55.5 LMH·bar−1) and higher rejection (99.7 ± 0.3% for MB). In addition, the PDA/PEI/AGQDs membrane exhibits better photocatalytic self-cleaning performance over the PDA/PEI membrane (83% vs. 69%). Therefore, this study provides a facile approach to construct a self-cleaning NF membrane. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanofiltration Membranes)
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16 pages, 3848 KiB  
Article
Impacts of Surface Hydrophilicity of Carboxylated Polyethersulfone Supports on the Characteristics and Permselectivity of PA-TFC Nanofiltration Membranes
by Yingfu Lian, Gang Zhang, Xiaojun Wang and Jie Yang
Nanomaterials 2021, 11(10), 2470; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11102470 - 22 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1694
Abstract
Our current study experimentally evaluates the impacts of surface hydrophilicity of supports on the properties of polyamide (PA) thin-film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membranes. A series of “carboxylated polyethersulfone” (CPES) copolymers with an increasing “molar ratio” (MR) of carboxyl units were used to [...] Read more.
Our current study experimentally evaluates the impacts of surface hydrophilicity of supports on the properties of polyamide (PA) thin-film composite (TFC) nanofiltration (NF) membranes. A series of “carboxylated polyethersulfone” (CPES) copolymers with an increasing “molar ratio” (MR) of carboxyl units were used to prepare supports with diverse surface hydrophilicities by the classical nonsolvent-induced phase separation (NIPS) method. Then, the PA-TFC NF membranes were finely fabricated atop these supports by conventional interfacial polymerization (IP) reactions. The linkages between the surface hydrophilicity of the supports and the characteristics of the interfacially polymerized PA layers as well as the permselectivity of NF membranes were investigated systematically. The morphological details of the NF membranes indicate that the growth of PA layers can be adjusted through increasing the surface hydrophilicity of the supports. Moreover, the separation results reveal that the NF membrane fabricated on the relatively hydrophobic support exhibits lower permeability (7.04 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1) and higher selectivity (89.94%) than those of the ones prepared on the hydrophilic supports (14.64~18.99 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and 66.98~73.48%). A three-stage conceptual scenario is proposed to illustrate the formation mechanism of the PA layer in NF membranes, which is due to the variation of surface hydrophilicity of the supports. The overall findings specify how the surface hydrophilicity of the supports influences the formation of PA layers, which ultimately defines the separation performances of the corresponding NF membranes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanofiltration Membranes)
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