Yuan Kai, Chen Rizhi, Zeng Yiqing
School of Art, Jiangsu Open University (The City Vocational College of Jiangsu), Nanjing 210036, China.
State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, National Engineering Research Center for Special Separation Membrane, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China.
Membranes (Basel). 2025 May 15;15(5):150. doi: 10.3390/membranes15050150.
Membrane technology has emerged as an effective solution for the purification of oily wastewater, particularly in the separation of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions. However, challenges, such as membrane fouling and the development of robust ceramic membranes with superior stability, continue to limit their widespread application. In this work, helical carbon nanotubes (HCNTs) with interlocking structures were grown in ceramic support channels through the airflow-induced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to fabricate membrane material with high hydrophilicity and underwater oleophobicity. The influence of CVD parameters on the growth of HCNTs and the membrane separation performance for O/W emulsions were studied systematically. The optimal HCNTs-SiC composite membrane was prepared at 600 °C, featuring a pore size of 0.95 μm and flux of 229.29 L·m·h. This membrane demonstrated exceptional purification efficiency (99.99%) for a 500 ppm O/W emulsion, along with a stable flux of 32.48 L·m·h under a transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 1.5 bar. Furthermore, the unique membrane structure and surface heterogeneity contributed to its long service life and excellent recovery capability. This work provides a novel strategy for designing high-performance ceramic membranes for oil-water separation, offering potential solutions to current limitations in membrane technology.
膜技术已成为净化含油废水的有效解决方案，特别是在分离水包油（O/W）乳液方面。然而，诸如膜污染以及开发具有卓越稳定性的坚固陶瓷膜等挑战，仍然限制着它们的广泛应用。在这项工作中，通过气流诱导化学气相沉积（CVD）方法在陶瓷支撑通道中生长具有互锁结构的螺旋碳纳米管（HCNT），以制备具有高亲水性和水下疏油性的膜材料。系统研究了CVD参数对HCNT生长以及O/W乳液膜分离性能的影响。在600°C下制备了最佳的HCNT-SiC复合膜，其孔径为0.95μm，通量为229.29L·m²·h。该膜对500ppm的O/W乳液表现出卓越的净化效率（99.99%），并且在1.5巴的跨膜压力（TMP）下通量稳定在32.48L·m²·h。此外，独特的膜结构和表面非均质性有助于其长使用寿命和出色的回收能力。这项工作为设计用于油水分离的高性能陶瓷膜提供了一种新策略，为膜技术当前的局限性提供了潜在解决方案。
