State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering , Nanjing Tech University , No. 5 Xin Mofan Road , Nanjing 210009 , PR China.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering , Ohio State University , 2041 N College Road , Columbus , Ohio 43210 , United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2018 May 30;10(21):18093-18103. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b03951. Epub 2018 May 17.
Ultrasound (US) treatment coupled with membrane filtration has been utilized for membrane fouling control in water treatment; however, large-scale implementation of ultrasonic cleaning equipment appeared to be cost-prohibitive. In this study, a porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) membrane is presented that enables in situ ultrasound generation by the application of an alternating voltage (AV) to mitigate fouling during oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion separation. We expect that this method is much more cost-effective because it is more direct, avoiding buildup of fouling and the need to take the membrane offline. Because the PZT membrane is hydrophilic, its underwater surface is oleophobic so that the accumulated oil droplets will have little affinity and hence can be removed easily by in situ-generated US. The effect of the in situ US generation on membrane fouling was investigated through variation in the excitation AV and its frequency, O/W emulsion pH, emulsified oil concentration, crossflow velocity, and transmembrane pressure. The results indicated that the in situ US generation resulted in a substantial decrease of fouling during the filtration process of O/W emulsions, whereas the membrane flux was maintained closely at its initial value.
超声（US）处理与膜过滤相结合已被用于水处理中的膜污染控制；然而，大规模实施超声清洗设备似乎成本过高。在这项研究中，提出了一种多孔锆钛酸铅（PZT）膜，通过施加交流电压（AV）实现原位超声产生，以减轻油水（O/W）乳液分离过程中的污染。我们预计这种方法更具成本效益，因为它更直接，避免了污染的积累和需要将膜离线。由于 PZT 膜亲水，其水下表面疏油，因此积聚的油滴几乎没有亲和力，因此可以通过原位产生的 US 轻松去除。通过改变激励 AV 及其频率、O/W 乳液 pH 值、乳化油浓度、错流速度和跨膜压力，研究了原位 US 产生对膜污染的影响。结果表明，原位 US 产生导致 O/W 乳液过滤过程中的污染显著减少，而膜通量则保持在初始值附近。
