Abstract
The development of a low-cost and environmentally-friendly procedure for the fabrication of silicon carbide (SiC) membranes while achieving good membrane performance is an important goal, but still a big challenge. To address this challenge, herein, a colloidal coating suspension of sub-micron SiC powders was prepared in aqueous media by employing aluminum nitrate nonahydrate as a sintering additive and was used for the deposition of a novel SiC membrane layer onto a SiC tubular support by dip-coating. The sintering temperature influence on the structural morphology was studied. Adding aluminum nitrate nonahydrate reduced the sintering temperature of the as-prepared membrane compared to conventional SiC membrane synthesis. Surface morphology, pore size distribution, crystalline structure, and chemical and mechanical stability of the membrane were characterized. The membrane showed excellent corrosion resistance in acidic and basic medium for 30 days with no significant changes in membrane properties. The pure water permeance of the membrane was measured as 2252 L h−1 m−2 bar−1. Lastly, the final membrane with 0.35 µm mean pore size showed high removal of oil droplets (99.7%) in emulsified oil-in-water with outstanding permeability. Hence, the new SiC membrane is promising for several industrial applications in the field of wastewater treatment.
Highlights
The particle size and particle size distribution of the coating suspension play a critical role in preparing a defect-free membrane layer
If the particle size distribution of the coating suspension is too broad and/or the particles are too large, the chance of defect formation at the membrane surface would be unavoidable during thermal treatment process
It shows that the coating suspension has a narrow pore size distribution with an average size of 0.51 μm, which indicates the colloidal suspension is suitable for coating on porous silicon carbide (SiC) support
Summary
Good chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability, long working lifespan, and low fouling tendencies of ceramic membranes make them ideal for several water and wastewater treatment applications, which cannot be operated efficiently by the polymeric membranes [3,4,5]. In this context, silicon carbide (SiC) membranes have gained special attention as an attractive porous material among the other ceramic membranes such as alumina [6], titania [7], and zirconia [8]. A significant research effort has been devoted to the development of SiC membranes for the treatment of various water and wastewaters such as oily wastewater, produced water, surface water, and swimming pool water [9,10]
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