School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Institute of Chemical Processes (ICP), Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
Nat Commun. 2015 May 14;6:7109. doi: 10.1038/ncomms8109.
Various forms of carbon nanotubes have been utilized in water treatment applications. The unique characteristics of carbon nanotubes, however, have not been fully exploited for such applications. Here we exploit the characteristics and corresponding attributes of carbon nanotubes to develop a millimetre-thick ultrafiltration membrane that can provide a water permeability that approaches 30,000 l m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1), compared with the best water permeability of 2,400 l m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1) reported for carbon nanotube membranes. The developed membrane consists only of vertically aligned carbon nanotube walls that provide 6-nm-wide inner pores and 7-nm-wide outer pores that form between the walls of the carbon nanotubes when the carbon nanotube forest is densified. The experimental results reveal that the permeance increases as the pore size decreases. The carbon nanotube walls of the membrane are observed to impede bacterial adhesion and resist biofilm formation.
各种形式的碳纳米管已被应用于水处理中。然而，碳纳米管的独特特性尚未被充分应用于这些应用中。在这里，我们利用碳纳米管的特性和相应属性，开发了一种毫米厚的超滤膜，其水透过率可达到 30000 l m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1)，而之前报道的碳纳米管膜的最高水透过率为 2400 l m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1)。所开发的膜仅由垂直排列的碳纳米管壁组成，这些壁提供了 6nm 宽的内孔和 7nm 宽的外孔，当碳纳米管森林致密化时，这些外孔在碳纳米管壁之间形成。实验结果表明，渗透速率随着孔径的减小而增加。观察到膜的碳纳米管壁阻碍细菌黏附并抵抗生物膜的形成。
