A systematic study of the impact of hydrophobicity on the wetting of MD membranes

Amelia T. Servi, Jehad Kharraz, David Klee, Katie Notarangelo, Brook Eyob, Elena Guillen-Burrieza, Andong Liu, Hassan A. Arafat, Karen K. Gleason*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

71 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In membrane distillation desalination (MD), a hydrophobic membrane acts as a barrier between feed and distillate solutions. MD membranes are often fabricated using a composite method: a hydrophilic or mildly hydrophobic base membrane is coated with a highly hydrophobic material to produce a membrane with adequate water liquid entry pressure (LEPw) for MD. This composite method increases the range of materials that can be used for MD membranes. However, environmental safety concerns about the hydrophobic coating materials persist. In this study we systematically quantify the relationship between the hydrophobicity of the coating material (its contact angle with water) and the LEPw of the coated MD membrane. This relationship determines the conditions when lower-hydrophobicity, more environmentally-friendly coating chemistries can be used to prepare successful MD membranes. For the membranes in this study, we found that for coating materials with intrinsic advancing contact angles (ACA) not much greater than 90°, water liquid entry pressure (LEPw) was in a range suitable for MD. We explained this result with a new model for liquid entry pressure (LEP). This work predicted that the hydrocarbon, poly(divinyl benzene) (pDVB), an environmentally-friendly but low-hydrophobicity polymer, could be a successful coating chemistry for MD membranes. We thus fabricated a nylon-pDVB composite membrane and demonstrated it in an MD desalination system.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)850-859
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume520
Online published16 Aug 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2016
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was funded by the Cooperative Agreement between the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (Masdar Institute), Abu Dhabi, UAE and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA – Reference 02/MI/MI/CP/11/07633/GEN/G/00 . This work was supported in part by the U. S. Army Research Laboratory and the U. S. Army Research Office through the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies , under contract number W911NF-13-D-0001 . Appendix A

Research Keywords

  • Desalination
  • Hydrophobicity
  • Initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD)
  • Liquid entry pressure (LEP)
  • Membrane distillation (MD)

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