Characterization and evaluation of carbon nanotube Bucky-Paper membranes for direct contact membrane distillation

Dumee, Ludovic, Sears, Kallista, Schutz, Jurg, Finn, Niall, Huynh, Chi, Hawkins, Stephen, Duke, Mikel ORCID: 0000-0002-3383-0006 and Gray, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0002-8748-2748 (2010) Characterization and evaluation of carbon nanotube Bucky-Paper membranes for direct contact membrane distillation. Journal of Membrane Science, 351 (1-2). pp. 36-43. ISSN 0376-7388

Abstract

Self-supporting carbon nanotube (CNT) Bucky-Papers have unique structural and surface properties which can be utilised in many applications. In this work we characterised pure self-supporting CNT membranes, where CNTs were held together only by Van der Waals forces, and evaluated their potential and performance in direct contact membrane distillation. The membranes were found to be highly hydrophobic (contact angle of 113°), highly porous (90%), and to exhibit a thermal conductivity of 2.7 kW/m2 h. We demonstrate, as a proof of concept, that self-supporting CNT Bucky-Paper membranes can be used for desalination in a direct contact membrane distillation setup with 99% salt rejection and a flux rate of 12 kg/m2 h at a water vapour partial pressure difference of 22.7 kPa. Ageing of the membranes by delamination is a main factor limiting their performance and work is currently under way to address this issue by investigating composite material structures.

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Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/15856
DOI 10.1016/j.memsci.2010.01.025
Official URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...
Subjects Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > Institute for Sustainability and Innovation (ISI)
Historical > FOR Classification > 0904 Chemical Engineering
Keywords ResPubID17078, carbon nanotube, bucky-paper, membrane, direct contact membrane distillation, desalination
Citations in Scopus 228 - View on Scopus
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