Article
Engineered Nanoparticles with Decoupled Photocatalysis and Wettability for Membrane-Based Desalination and Separation of Oil-SalineWater Mixtures
Nanomaterials
(2021)
Abstract
Membrane-based separation technologies are the cornerstone of remediating unconventional
water sources, including brackish and industrial or municipal wastewater, as they are relatively
energy-efficient and versatile. However, membrane fouling by dissolved and suspended substances
in the feed stream remains a primary challenge that currently prevents these membranes from being
used in real practices. Thus, we directly address this challenge by applying a superhydrophilic
and oleophobic coating to a commercial membrane surface which can be utilized to separate and
desalinate an oil and saline water mixture, in addition to photocatalytically degrading the organic
substances. We fabricated the photocatalytic membrane by coating a commercial membrane with
an ultraviolet (UV) light-curable adhesive. Then, we sprayed it with a mixture of photocatalytic
nitrogen-doped titania (N-TiO2) and perfluoro silane-grafted silica (F-SiO2) nanoparticles. The membrane
was placed under a UV light, which resulted in a chemically heterogeneous surface with
intercalating high and low surface energy regions (i.e., N-TiO2 and F-SiO2, respectively) that were
securely bound to the commercial membrane surface. We demonstrated that the coated membrane
could be utilized for continuous separation and desalination of an oil–saline water mixture and
for simultaneous photocatalytic degradation of the organic substances adsorbed on the membrane
surface upon visible light irradiation.
Keywords
- Photocatalytic nanoparticles,
- Wettability,
- Perfluorinated silica nanoparticles,
- Oil–water separation,
- Membrane fouling
Disciplines
Publication Date
May 25, 2021
DOI
10.3390/nano11061397
Publisher Statement
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
Citation Information
Bishwash Shrestha, M. Amin Ezazi and Gibum Kwon. "Engineered Nanoparticles with Decoupled Photocatalysis and Wettability for Membrane-Based Desalination and Separation of Oil-SalineWater Mixtures" Nanomaterials Vol. 11 Iss. 6 (2021) ISSN: 2079-4991 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mohammadamin-ezazi/7/