JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
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2025
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IF 9
Haiyun Li,Zhengshi Yu,Yibo Lin,Wentian Zhang,Cunxian Lai,Lichao Xia,Fangang Meng,Shanshan Zhao
Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising technology for hypersaline wastewater treatment. However, commercial hydrophobic MD membrane usually suffers from severe wetting/fouling/scaling challenges that seriously hinder its wide applications. It is urgent to develop a robust MD membrane with simultaneous wetting/fouling/scaling resistance in a facile way. In this study, a Janus membrane with a dense hydrophilic nanofiltration top layer was simply fabricated by co-deposition of pyrogallic and polyethylenimine on hydrophobic polyvinylidene difluoride membrane followed by glutaraldehyde cross-linking. The Janus membrane can maintain stable performance during long-term treatment of saline wastewater containing surfactants, oil, and/or mineral ions, suggesting its excellent simultaneous wetting/fouling/scaling resistance. The mechanisms analyses reveal that the excellent wetting/fouling resistance is owed to the combined effects of strong surface hydration barrier, size exclusion, and strong capillary force. Moreover, the positively charged amino groups on the membrane surface further enhance the scaling resistance. Remarkably, the Janus membrane demonstrated exceptional performance during long-term (>100 h) treatment of ethylene waste lye, a hypersaline organic wastewater containing a broad spectrum of contaminants. The membrane possessed stable vapor flux and exhibited near-perfect salt rejection (99 %) and organic rejection (98 %). Our study provides a simple method for designing a robust Janus membrane for treating hypersaline organic wastewater and demonstrates the significant industrial application potential of MD technology.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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DOI
高影响因子
WATER RESEARCH
·
2025
·
IF 12.4
Xuesong Li,Man Xu,Xin Liu,Qianhong She,Woei Jye Lau,Linyan Yang
Nanofiltration (NF) membranes hold great promise for lithium (Li) recovery from brines, with numerous studies focusing on improving Li/Mg separation performance. However, real brine environments pose significant challenges, as fouling and scaling severely hinder Li recovery efficiency. Despite their critical impact, these challenges have received limited attention. This study addresses these issues through surface engineering of polyamide (PA) NF membranes, achieving a positively charged, ultra-smooth surface. The engineered membrane demonstrated exceptional fouling and scaling resistance during real brine treatment, exhibiting only a 12% flux decline over 12 hours, compared to 28% and 20% for the control and commercial NF270 membranes, respectively. This superior antifouling performance enabled sustained high Li flux (>80 mM·m⁻ 2 ·h⁻ 1 ) while reducing the Mg/Li mass ratio from 4.1 in the feed to 1.4 in the permeate. Additionally, the membrane displayed remarkable resistance to scaling in synthetic brine containing high concentrations of Ca 2+ and SO 4 2 ⁻. Systematic evaluations in both synthetic and real brines revealed that the enhanced process stability arises from the synergistic effects of reduced surface roughness and optimized surface charge, which together minimize foulant adhesion and mitigate scaling. These findings mark a significant advancement toward the practical implementation of membrane-based Li recovery, underscoring the critical importance of addressing fouling and scaling in real brine environments.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
APPLIED SURFACE SCIENCE
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2019
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IF 5.155
Hao Li,Sirong Yu,Jinhui Hu,Xiaoli Yin
Modifier-free superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted much attention since their discovery due to the potential for applications. Although there is an emerging consensus that modifier-free structured hydrophilic surfaces can achieve superhydrophobic , how the surface morphology influence their wettability as well as why modifier-free structured surfaces can achieve superhydrophobic are lacking. In this work, we fabricated many Cu-Zn coatings with various surface morphologies on steel substrate by tuning electrodeposition parameters including the current density , the Zn 2+ /Cu 2+ molar ratio, and the electrodeposition time. We found that these freshly prepared electrodeposited Cu-Zn coatings were superhydrophilic after dried. Interestingly, after storage in air for more than 60 days, these modifier-free hierarchical structured Cu-Zn coatings became superhydrophobic with the maximum water contact angle of 154.73° and the minimum sliding angle of ~6.5°. We experimentally demonstrated that both the hierarchical structure and the chemical composition (the formation of CuO-ZnO and the oxygen adsorption) contribute to the superhydrophobicity of the modifier-free Cu-Zn coating. Furthermore, this modifier-free superhydrophobic Cu-Zn coating presents excellent durability, self-cleaning, anti-corrosion, and anti-scaling properties.
研究领域:
材料科学
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表面工程
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
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2020
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IF 10.652
Yanji Zhu,Hongwei Li,Mingliang Zhu,Huaiyuan Wang,Zhenggui Li
Anti-scaling is one key problem in various industrial productions. The coating technology is the most effective protection method for metals and pipelines. As a good scale inhibitor, diethylene triamine penta(methylene phosphonic acid) (DTPMPA) generally takes effect after placement into wastewater and through discharging with water flow. In this study, a novel DTPMPA-modified superhydrophobic anodized aluminium (DSAA) coating was designed, fabricated and utilized for anti-scaling of CaCO 3 deposition. The unique anti-scaling performance on the surface of the DSAA coating originated from the gradual release of DTPMPA at the solution/coating interface, plus the effect of superhydrophobic anti-scaling. During the CaCO 3 deposition, the abundant air layer retained at the surface of the superhydrophobic DSAA coating prevented further deposition of CaCO 3 . In addition, the active DTPMPA gradually and dynamically released from the DSAA coating to the water/coating interface chelated with Ca 2+ and further stopped the possible combination between Ca 2+ and CO 3 2− . This synergistic antiscaling effect of the DSAA coating showed a wide application prospect in effective anti-scaling on various surfaces. This work provides a new way of designing and fabricating dynamic superhydrophobic coatings for anti-scaling.
研究领域:
材料科学
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
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2022
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IF 10.53
Dejun Feng,Xianhui Li,Zhangxin Wang
Membrane wetting, fouling, and scaling are three prominent challenges that limit membrane distillation (MD) applications. To overcome these challenges, novel MD membranes including omniphobic membranes and Janus membranes with a dense hydrophilic surface layer have been developed. In this study, we fabricated an omniphobic membrane and a Janus membrane composed of a dense polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) surface layer and a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) substrate. The two membranes have been compared in MD experiments with different feeds. Furthermore, the working mechanisms of the two membranes have been elucidated. As a result, neither the omniphobic MD membrane nor the Janus MD membrane can resolve all three challenges at the same time. Specifically, both the omniphobic MD membrane and Janus MD membrane can resist wetting but via different working mechanisms. From breakthrough pressure (BP) determinations with an ethanol-water mixture (i.e., a low-surface-tension liquid), the omniphobic MD membrane resists wetting as its LEP (82.0 ± 9.2 kPa) is larger than the transmembrane pressure in the MD operation, while the Janus MD membrane resists wetting because the huge capillary pressure (550 ± 50 kPa) in the dense hydrophilic surface layer retains the wetting solution. The omniphobic MD membrane is prone to oil fouling because of the strong underwater hydrophobic attraction between the membrane surface and the mineral oil droplets, while the Janus MD membrane can substantially mitigate fouling due to the lack of attraction between the mineral oil droplets and the hydrophilic membrane surface. The omniphobic MD membrane exhibits outstanding scaling resistance because minerals can hardly precipitate and/or crystalize on the membrane surface, while the Janus MD membrane was susceptible to scaling due to the precipitation and/or crystallization of minerals inside the hydrophilic surface layer. Therefore, the selection of MD membranes should depend on the feed constituents. Overall, our study provides important guidelines for the future development of robust MD membranes.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境工程
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DOI
高影响因子
DESALINATION
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2022
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IF 11.211
Rui Wu,Yanyan Tan,Fangang Meng,Yuanyuan Zhang,Yu-Xi Huang
Membrane distillation (MD) is promising desalination technology for hypersaline wastewater treatment. However, traditional MD membranes are subject to low vapor flux and mineral scaling. In this study, we report the fabrication of a composite membrane composed of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and metal azolate framework-4 (MAF-4) via electrospinning. The highly porous MAF-4 provides additional vapor transfer channels and better heat insulation , thereby significantly increasing the membrane flux compared to a bare electrospun PVDF membrane. The surface chemistry of the MAF-4 surface is further tailored with fluorinated functional groups through the coordination between the fluorinated molecule and the surface Zn atom. This surface modification changes the surface wettability of the MAF-4 and thus improves the membrane scaling resistance. This study demonstrates a universal approach for preparing high flux and scaling-resistant MD membranes. In addition, the tunable surface property of MAF-4 can also be utilized to design and fabricate other types of membrane surfaces by coordinating different functional molecules.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境工程
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Membranes
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2022
·Vol. 12
·期 8
·743
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IF 4.562
Yu-Jing Liu,Yan-Nan Lu,Dong-Qing Liang,Yin-Shuang Hu,Yu-Xi Huang
Membrane distillation (MD) has emerged as a promising technology for hypersaline wastewater treatment. However, membrane scaling is still a critical issue for common hydrophobic MD membranes. Herein, we report a multi-layered surface modification strategy on the commercial polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane via plasma treatment and surface fluorination cycles. The repeated plasma treatment process generates more reaction sites for the fluorination reaction, leading to higher fluorination density and more branched structures. MD tests with CaSO4as the scaling agent show that the modification strategy mentioned above improves the membrane scaling resistance. Notably, the PVDF membrane treated with three cycles of plasma and fluorination treatments exhibits the best anti-scaling performance while maintaining almost the same membrane flux as the unmodified PVDF membrane. This study suggests that a highly branched surface molecular structure with low surface energy benefits the MD process in both membrane flux and scaling resistance. Besides, our research demonstrates a universal and facile approach for membrane treatment to improve membrane scaling resistance.Keywords:membrane distillation;multi-layered surface modification;scaling resistance;superhydrophobic membrane
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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产品关联
DOI
PubMed
高影响因子
DESALINATION
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2024
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IF 8.3
Guijing Chen,Xifan Li,Xin Li,Zhaoyang Song,Baicang Liu
Groundwater in rural areas often contains hardness ions that contribute to scaling on polyamide nanofiltration (NF) membranes used in drinking water treatment. To mitigate this issue, we chemically modified the residual functional groups (acyl chlorides and primary amines) on the surface of a hybridized polyamide layer by reacting them with three small-molecule monomers featuring quaternary ammonium salts: choline chloride, 2,3-dihydroxy- N , N , N -trimethylpropan-1-aminium chloride, and 2,3-epoxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride. This modification created a weakly charged, positive electric field on the underlying negatively charged polyamide surface, enhancing the membrane resistance to scaling and fouling. The chemical grafting altered the membranes' physicochemical properties, including wettability, charge characteristics, surface carboxyl group density, and pore structure. Notably, the modified NF membranes exhibited higher LiCl rejection rates compared to unmodified membranes, demonstrating the effectiveness of electrostatic repulsion against positively charged ions. This finding was supported by changes in zeta potential measurements. Furthermore, the sulfate/chloride separation factor for the modified NF membrane increased from 13.6 to 34.0, indicating improved selectivity while maintaining the desalination mechanism of typical negatively charged membranes. The extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (xDLVO) theory calculations revealed that reducing polar interactions on the NF membrane surface was crucial for enhancing anti-fouling performance. The weakly charged positive electric field actively repelled Ca 2+ from groundwater contacting the membrane surface, while the negatively charged polyamide layer passively inhibited Ca 2+ interaction with the membrane surface through electrostatic repulsion of CO₃ 2− . This dual mechanism resulted in excellent anti-CaCO₃ scaling behavior for the modified NF membranes.
研究领域:
环境科学
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材料科学
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产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers
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2019
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IF 3.834
Xixi Chen,Huaiyuan Wang,Chijia Wang,Wenbo Zhang,Chongjiang Lv,Yanji Zhu
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as a carrier of diethylenetriaminepenta(methylphosphonic acid) (DTPMPA), combining with flake zinc and PVDF powders, were used to fabricate a novel organosilicon epoxy resin-based (EP) composite coating (EP/iDCNTs/Zn/PVDF) for antiscaling and anti-corrosion purposes. Compared with EP coating, the EP/iDCNTs/Zn/PVDF composite coating exhibited unique antiscaling properties with the CaCO 3 deposition on the coating surface decreased by 81.6%. It was mainly because the coating surface contains DTPMPA, and Zn 2+ released by corrosion of Zn powder, which jointly inhibited the deposition behavior of CaCO 3 . Meanwhile, the fabricated composite coating hardly adhered by CaCO 3 crystals which was due to its higher hydrophobicity. Moreover, anti-corrosion tests proved that the prepared composite coating's impedance modulus was about 2 orders higher than that of the EP coating. This was ascribed to the improving shielding effect of fillers and high hydrophobicity of coating, preventing the water and oxygen molecules from penetrating into the composite coating.
研究领域:
材料科学
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
·
2024
·
IF 8.4
Minyuan Han,Gaohui Liu,Chuanjie Fang,Liping Zhu
Membrane distillation (MD) offers a theoretically complete interception of salts, presenting a promising desalination pathway for freshwater supply. However, conventional hydrophobic membranes fail to desalinate water containing surfactants or supersaturated gypsum over prolonged periods. To address wetting and scaling challenges, we developed a superhydrophobization methodology for poly (vinylidene fluoride) membranes by in situ controlling spherulitic surface morphology through thermally induced phase separation. The major advantages of this one-step strategy lie in its fluorination-free, template-free, and nanoparticle-free. The as-prepared membranes exhibit a rough morphology and superhydrophobic characters with high air-trapping pockets. They demonstrate stable vapor fluxes and high salt rejections (>99 %) when used in desalination processes for saline water containing 0.6 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate , 0.03 mM cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, or gypsum solution with a saturation index of 1.1. Also, the outstanding anti-wetting and anti-scaling properties were demonstrated using synthetic shale gas wastewater. The formation of an air layer on the integrated spherulitic surface highlights the local kinetic barrier and slippery surface, effectively preventing the attachment of amphiphilic surfactants and mineral ions. Importantly, due to the membrane's structural integrity, the spherulitic surface displays high robustness and minimal impact from abrasion cycles and ultrasonication . This work exemplifies a facile strategy to engineer micro-/nano-spherulitic surface morphology for robust superhydrophobic membranes used in MD desalination.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境工程
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化学工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
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2020
·
IF 7.183
Jinli Zhao,Qingbai Chen,Luyao Ren,Jianyou Wang
A novel preparation method of cation exchange membranes (CEM), based on sulfonated materials with low sulfonation degree (DS), has been proposed in previous studies. For the preparation of CEMs, these studies have provided an approach with low cost, environment-friendly technology, and ideal properties, and proved the value and feasibility of the new method. Based on this, more work remained to be done to further modify the properties of CEMs prepared with this method. One purpose of this study, which was for the basic needs of good CEM practicability, was to improve CEM stability based on sulfonated polyether sulfone (SPES). This purpose was achieved satisfactorily by the proper design, and proved forcefully by stability testing, including thermostability, mechanical stability, and resistance to acid and base, etc. The other purpose, which was designed due to the special membrane surfaces, was to investigate CEM anti-scaling properties during electrodialysis (ED) processes. Compared with commercial CEMs, one clear different characteristic of CEM prepared by this method was flatter and smoother membrane surfaces, which should be an advantage for anti-scaling of salts during an ED process. From this, experiment of the second part was designed to specifically explore anti-scaling factors, but an unexpected result obtained. It was the higher hydrophilicity of these CEMs rather than their smoother surface that played an important role in anti-scaling behavior. The obtained result should be an innovative and significant discovery of this work. It will directly impact on anti-scaling research of both CEM and anion exchange membranes (AEMs). Hence, this work was a meaningful bridge for expanding previous research of CEM preparation into anti-scaling applications of ion exchange membranes.
研究领域:
材料科学
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环境工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE
·
2021
·
IF 8.742
Yu-Xi Huang,Dong-Qing Liang,Cheng-Hui Luo,Yuanyuan Zhang,Fangang Meng
Membrane scaling is a critical challenge for membrane distillation (MD), especially when treating hypersaline brines. In this study, an anti-scaling membrane was developed with a liquid-like surface coating . This fabrication approach combined electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane with surface fluorination without the addition of nanoparticles . Two fluoro silanes with the same alkyl-chain length but different hydrolysis reaction sites were investigated as the fluorination agents. Membrane characterizations indicated that surface modification with the single hydrolysis site fluoro silane (17-FAS-S) did not change the membrane morphology or structure. On the other hand, surface modification with the triple hydrolysis site fluoro silane (17-FAS-T) generated nanoparticles on the membrane surface, resulting in increased roughness. While both the 17-FAS-S and 17-FAS-T modified membranes exhibited excellent scaling resistance in the MD scaling tests, the 17-FAS-S membrane provided a much higher vapor flux than the 17-FAS-T one. Finally, the mechanism of scaling resistance and vapor permeability provided by the liquid-like modification was discussed.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
环境工程
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产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）