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Polymers
Special Issues
Polymeric Membranes for Distillation
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Polymeric Membranes for Distillation

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Membranes and Films".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 March 2023) | Viewed by 6099

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jadwiga Laska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biomaterials and Composites, Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Interests: polymer materials; biomaterials; composites; polymer chemistry; general organic chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Arezou Anvari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Interests: water and wastewater treatment; desalination; membrane technology; membrane distillation; reverse osmosis; membrane fouling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, there has been growing interest in membrane distillation (MD) technology for treating high-salinity water or contaminated wastewater. MD is a hybrid technology that combines the advantages of membrane separation and thermal distillation. This process is based on transmembrane partial vapor pressure, which leads to the transport of only water vapor molecules through a hydrophobic microfiltration membrane. An ideal membrane for MD is expected to have features including a high liquid entry pressure (LEP), low thermal conductivity, high permeability, excellent mechanical strength, and low fouling. The membrane performance in the MD process varies depending upon the intrinsic properties of the membrane materials. As for all other membrane-based processes, membrane fouling is one of the major issues challenging MD systems. Therefore, membrane fouling is a critical issue that needs to be addressed to optimize the system’s design for various types of MD.

Polymeric membranes have been attracting significant attention as materials with high suitability for MD applications. The key developments of polymeric membranes needed for MD processes are a high LEP and low fouling rate. These qualities are very important for making them applicable to various sources of saline water that cannot be treated with reverse osmosis and preventing membrane damage.

This Special Issue will focus on the desired characteristics in polymeric membranes used in MD processes and highlight several aspects including modifying the material, structure, morphology, and composition of the membranes. The Special Issue is expected to provide better knowledge and understanding of ways to enhance the quality of the membranes used in MD processes.

Prof. Dr. Jadwiga Laska
Dr. Arezou Anvari
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. Polymers 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 2700 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

  • membrane distillation
  • polymeric membranes
  • membrane fabrication
  • membrane modification
  • membrane design
  • membrane materials
  • membrane characteristics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5155 KiB  
Article
Coaxial Electrospun Nanofibrous Membranes for Enhanced Water Recovery by Direct Contact Membrane Distillation
by Vivekanandan Sangeetha, Noel Jacob Kaleekkal and Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran
Polymers 2022, 14(24), 5350; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14245350 - 07 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1508
Abstract
Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging technology for water recovery from hypersaline wastewater. Membrane scaling and wetting are the drawbacks that prevent the widespread implementation of the MD process. In this study, coaxially electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-co-HFP) nanofibrous membranes were fabricated with re-entrant [...] Read more.
Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging technology for water recovery from hypersaline wastewater. Membrane scaling and wetting are the drawbacks that prevent the widespread implementation of the MD process. In this study, coaxially electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-co-HFP) nanofibrous membranes were fabricated with re-entrant architecture and enhanced hydrophobicity/omniphobicity. The multiscale roughness was constructed by incorporating Al2O3 nanoparticles and 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H Perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane in the sheath solution. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) could confirm the formation of the core-sheath nanofibrous membranes, which exhibited a water contact angle of ~142.5° and enhanced surface roughness. The membrane displayed a stable vapor flux of 12 L.m−2.h−1 (LMH) for a 7.0 wt.% NaCl feed solution and no loss in permeate quality or quantity. Long-term water recovery from 10.5 wt.% NaCl feed solution was determined to be 8–10 LMH with >99.9% NaCl rejection for up to 5 cycles of operation (60 h). The membranes exhibited excellent resistance to wetting even above the critical micelle concentration (CMC) for surfactants in the order sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) (16 mM) > cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) (1.5 mM) > Tween 80 (0.10 mM). The presence of salts further deteriorated membrane performance for SDS (12 mM) and Tween-80 (0.05 mM). These coaxial electrospun nanofibrous membranes are robust and can be explored for long-term applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymeric Membranes for Distillation)
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Review

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50 pages, 8417 KiB  
Review
Fluoropolymer Membranes for Membrane Distillation and Membrane Crystallization
by Xue Li, Jun Pan, Francesca Macedonio, Claudia Ursino, Mauro Carraro, Marcella Bonchio, Enrico Drioli, Alberto Figoli, Zhaohui Wang and Zhaoliang Cui
Polymers 2022, 14(24), 5439; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14245439 - 12 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4058
Abstract
Fluoropolymer membranes are applied in membrane operations such as membrane distillation and membrane crystallization where hydrophobic porous membranes act as a physical barrier separating two phases. Due to their hydrophobic nature, only gaseous molecules are allowed to pass through the membrane and are [...] Read more.
Fluoropolymer membranes are applied in membrane operations such as membrane distillation and membrane crystallization where hydrophobic porous membranes act as a physical barrier separating two phases. Due to their hydrophobic nature, only gaseous molecules are allowed to pass through the membrane and are collected on the permeate side, while the aqueous solution cannot penetrate. However, these two processes suffer problems such as membrane wetting, fouling or scaling. Membrane wetting is a common and undesired phenomenon, which is caused by the loss of hydrophobicity of the porous membrane employed. This greatly affects the mass transfer efficiency and separation efficiency. Simultaneously, membrane fouling occurs, along with membrane wetting and scaling, which greatly reduces the lifespan of the membranes. Therefore, strategies to improve the hydrophobicity of membranes have been widely investigated by researchers. In this direction, hydrophobic fluoropolymer membrane materials are employed more and more for membrane distillation and membrane crystallization thanks to their high chemical and thermal resistance. This paper summarizes different preparation methods of these fluoropolymer membrane, such as non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS), thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS), vapor-induced phase separation (VIPS), etc. Hydrophobic modification methods, including surface coating, surface grafting and blending, etc., are also introduced. Moreover, the research advances on the application of less toxic solvents for preparing these membranes are herein reviewed. This review aims to provide guidance to researchers for their future membrane development in membrane distillation and membrane crystallization, using fluoropolymer materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymeric Membranes for Distillation)
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