Using green solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), to fabricate highly porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for membrane distillation

Jian Chang; Jian Zuo; Liling Zhang; Gregory S. O'Brien; Tai Shung Chung

doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.002

Using green solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), to fabricate highly porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for membrane distillation

Jian Chang, Jian Zuo, Liling Zhang, Gregory S. O'Brien, Tai Shung Chung^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Water Desalination & Reuse Center

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

While membrane technology continues to thrive in seawater desalination, it would defeat the very purpose of saving the environment if toxic solvents are involved in membrane manufacture. As a paradigm of green chemistry, a non-toxic solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), was used for the first time to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The phase inversion kinetics of the PVDF/TEP system was closely investigated and compared with the conventional N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)/PVDF system. The former showed a less abrupt phase inversion rate and produced a more porous sponge-like structure than the latter. The 12/88 wt% PVDF/TEP binary solution produced fibers with promising performance. They not only possessed robust mechanical properties and a liquid entry pressure up to 2.0 bar but also exhibited an average flux of 20 kg/m²·h at 60 °C and a NaCl rejection of 99.99%. In addition, hollow fiber membranes spun from this PVDF/TEP system had porosity of greater than 83% for all conditions studied. Since there were no additives or non-solvents in the dope solutions and no post-treatments involved, the use of TEP as a green solvent could significantly reduce the complexity of membrane fabrication, scale up and commercialization. Clearly, the much safer solvent TEP is able to replace toxic solvents commonly used in membrane manufacture and to produce membranes with highly competitive performance.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	295-304
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Membrane Science
Volume	539
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.002
State	Published - 2017

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for Singapore National Research Foundation under its Energy Innovation Research Programme for supporting the project entitled, “Using Cold Energy from Re-gasification of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for Novel Hybrid Seawater Desalination Technologies” (Grant number: R-279-000-456-279). We also thank Arkema Inc. for their kind support (Grant number: R-279-000-473-597). Special thanks are given to Dr. Gang Han, Ms. Kang-Jia Lu, Mr. Yingnan Feng, Dr. Dieling Zhao, Dr. Lin Luo, Mr. Zhenlei Cheng and Mr. Hong Nan Kuan.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biochemistry
Materials Science(all)
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Filtration and Separation

Access to Document

10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.002

Cite this

@article{53f426f45d1c4b278b2e5ad0eb689964,

title = "Using green solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), to fabricate highly porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for membrane distillation",

abstract = "While membrane technology continues to thrive in seawater desalination, it would defeat the very purpose of saving the environment if toxic solvents are involved in membrane manufacture. As a paradigm of green chemistry, a non-toxic solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), was used for the first time to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The phase inversion kinetics of the PVDF/TEP system was closely investigated and compared with the conventional N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)/PVDF system. The former showed a less abrupt phase inversion rate and produced a more porous sponge-like structure than the latter. The 12/88 wt% PVDF/TEP binary solution produced fibers with promising performance. They not only possessed robust mechanical properties and a liquid entry pressure up to 2.0 bar but also exhibited an average flux of 20 kg/m2·h at 60 °C and a NaCl rejection of 99.99%. In addition, hollow fiber membranes spun from this PVDF/TEP system had porosity of greater than 83% for all conditions studied. Since there were no additives or non-solvents in the dope solutions and no post-treatments involved, the use of TEP as a green solvent could significantly reduce the complexity of membrane fabrication, scale up and commercialization. Clearly, the much safer solvent TEP is able to replace toxic solvents commonly used in membrane manufacture and to produce membranes with highly competitive performance.",

author = "Jian Chang and Jian Zuo and Liling Zhang and O'Brien, {Gregory S.} and Chung, {Tai Shung}",

note = "Funding Information: The authors are grateful for Singapore National Research Foundation under its Energy Innovation Research Programme for supporting the project entitled, “Using Cold Energy from Re-gasification of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for Novel Hybrid Seawater Desalination Technologies” (Grant number: R-279-000-456-279). We also thank Arkema Inc. for their kind support (Grant number: R-279-000-473-597). Special thanks are given to Dr. Gang Han, Ms. Kang-Jia Lu, Mr. Yingnan Feng, Dr. Dieling Zhao, Dr. Lin Luo, Mr. Zhenlei Cheng and Mr. Hong Nan Kuan. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2017",

doi = "10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.002",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "539",

pages = "295--304",

journal = "Journal of Membrane Science",

issn = "0376-7388",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Using green solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), to fabricate highly porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for membrane distillation

AU - Chang, Jian

AU - Zuo, Jian

AU - Zhang, Liling

AU - O'Brien, Gregory S.

AU - Chung, Tai Shung

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are grateful for Singapore National Research Foundation under its Energy Innovation Research Programme for supporting the project entitled, “Using Cold Energy from Re-gasification of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for Novel Hybrid Seawater Desalination Technologies” (Grant number: R-279-000-456-279). We also thank Arkema Inc. for their kind support (Grant number: R-279-000-473-597). Special thanks are given to Dr. Gang Han, Ms. Kang-Jia Lu, Mr. Yingnan Feng, Dr. Dieling Zhao, Dr. Lin Luo, Mr. Zhenlei Cheng and Mr. Hong Nan Kuan. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - While membrane technology continues to thrive in seawater desalination, it would defeat the very purpose of saving the environment if toxic solvents are involved in membrane manufacture. As a paradigm of green chemistry, a non-toxic solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), was used for the first time to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The phase inversion kinetics of the PVDF/TEP system was closely investigated and compared with the conventional N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)/PVDF system. The former showed a less abrupt phase inversion rate and produced a more porous sponge-like structure than the latter. The 12/88 wt% PVDF/TEP binary solution produced fibers with promising performance. They not only possessed robust mechanical properties and a liquid entry pressure up to 2.0 bar but also exhibited an average flux of 20 kg/m2·h at 60 °C and a NaCl rejection of 99.99%. In addition, hollow fiber membranes spun from this PVDF/TEP system had porosity of greater than 83% for all conditions studied. Since there were no additives or non-solvents in the dope solutions and no post-treatments involved, the use of TEP as a green solvent could significantly reduce the complexity of membrane fabrication, scale up and commercialization. Clearly, the much safer solvent TEP is able to replace toxic solvents commonly used in membrane manufacture and to produce membranes with highly competitive performance.

AB - While membrane technology continues to thrive in seawater desalination, it would defeat the very purpose of saving the environment if toxic solvents are involved in membrane manufacture. As a paradigm of green chemistry, a non-toxic solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), was used for the first time to fabricate polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The phase inversion kinetics of the PVDF/TEP system was closely investigated and compared with the conventional N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)/PVDF system. The former showed a less abrupt phase inversion rate and produced a more porous sponge-like structure than the latter. The 12/88 wt% PVDF/TEP binary solution produced fibers with promising performance. They not only possessed robust mechanical properties and a liquid entry pressure up to 2.0 bar but also exhibited an average flux of 20 kg/m2·h at 60 °C and a NaCl rejection of 99.99%. In addition, hollow fiber membranes spun from this PVDF/TEP system had porosity of greater than 83% for all conditions studied. Since there were no additives or non-solvents in the dope solutions and no post-treatments involved, the use of TEP as a green solvent could significantly reduce the complexity of membrane fabrication, scale up and commercialization. Clearly, the much safer solvent TEP is able to replace toxic solvents commonly used in membrane manufacture and to produce membranes with highly competitive performance.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020688873&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.002

DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2017.06.002

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85020688873

SN - 0376-7388

VL - 539

SP - 295

EP - 304

JO - Journal of Membrane Science

JF - Journal of Membrane Science

ER -

Using green solvent, triethyl phosphate (TEP), to fabricate highly porous PVDF hollow fiber membranes for membrane distillation

Abstract

Bibliographical note

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this