Preparation and characterization of inorganic hollow fiber membranes

Inorganic hollow fiber membranes were prepared by spinning a polymer solution containing suspended aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) powders to a hollow fiber precursor, which is then sintered at elevated temperatures. In spinning these hollow fiber precursors, polyethersulfone (PESf), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) were used as a polymer binder, a solvent, and an additive, respectively. The inorganic hollow fiber membranes prepared were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM), gas permeation techniques Coulter porometer, and gravimetric analysis. Some primary factors affecting the structure and performance of the membranes such as the sintering temperature and the ratio of the aluminum oxide to the PESf polymer binder were studied extensively. The prepared inorganic membranes show an asymmetric structure, which is similar to the conventional polymeric membranes prepared from the same phase-inversion technique. The inorganic hollow fiber membrane with a higher porosity and better mechanical strength could be prepared by blending the spinning solution with a smaller amount of aluminum oxide powder.     

Preparation and characterisation of SrCe0.95Yb0.05O2.975 hollow fibre membranes

A mixed proton and electronic conducting hollow fibre membrane, SrCe_0.95Yb_0.05O_2.975 (SCYb), has been prepared by spinning a polymer solution containing suspended SCYb particles to a hollow fibre precursor, which is then sintered at elevated temperatures. The SCYb powders having a sub-micron size, i.e. an essential size for fabrication of the hollow fibre with good mechanical strength, were synthesised through a polymerised water-soluble complex method. By controlling weight ratio of the SCYb ceramic powder to the polymer binder and sintering temperatures, the SCYb ceramic hollow fibres with gas-tight properties can be prepared. Some primary factors affecting microstructures, gas tightness and mechanical strength of the mixed conducting hollow fibre membranes were studied in details.     

Effect of solution extrusion rate on morphology and performance of polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes using polyvinyl pyrrolidone as an additive

<正>Polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF) hollow fiber membranes prepared from spinning solutions with different polyvinyl pyrrolidone(PVP) contents(1%and 5%) at different extrusion rates were obtained by wet/dry phase process keeping all other spinning parameters constant.In spinning these PVDF hollow fibers,dimethylacetamide(DMAc) and PVP were used as a solvent and an additive,respectively.Water was used as the inner coagulant.Dimethylformamide(DMF) and water(30/70) were used as the external coagulant.The performances of membranes were characterized in terms of water flux,solute rejection for the wet membranes.The structure and morphology of PVDF hollow fiber were examined by BET adsorption,dry/wet weight method and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).It is found that the increase in PVP content and extrusion rate of spinning solution can result in the increase of water flux and decrease of solute rejection.The improvements of interconnected porous structure and pore size are induced by shear-thinning behavior of spinning solution at high extrusion rates,which could result in the increase of water flux of hollow fiber membranes.The increase of extrusion rate also leads to the increase of membrane thickness due to the recovery effect of elastic property of polymer chains.     

Preparation and characterization of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes

Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes were prepared by dry/wet and wet phase inversion methods. In spinning these PVDF hollow fibers, dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) were used as a solvent and an additive, respectively. Water was used as the external coagulant. Water or ethanol was used as the internal coagulants. The membranes were characterized in terms of water flux, molecular weight cut-off for the wet membranes. Gas permeation fluxes and effective surface porosity were determined by a gas permeation method for the dried membranes. The cross-sectional structures were examined by scanning electron microscopy. The effects of polymer concentration, air-gap, PVP molecular weight, PVP content in the polymer dope, and the internal coagulant on the permeation properties and membrane structures were examined. Highly permeable PVDF hollow fiber membranes could be prepared from a polymer dope containing low molecular weight PVP and using ethanol as the internal coagulant.     

Thin Pd membrane on α-Al2O3 hollow fiber substrate without any interlayer by electroless plating combined with embedding Pd catalyst in polymer template

Palladium acetate and poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) were dissolved in chloroform to form a homogeneous solution. Using this solution, thin polymer template film with embedded Pd catalyst was coated on a porous α-Al₂O₃ hollow fiber substrate. The Pd in the template film was used as the catalyst for electroless plating of Pd membranes. After the template was removed by heat treatment, the thin Pd membranes without any intermediate layers and substrate penetration were synthesized successfully. The as-synthesized Pd composite membranes of thickness less than 5 μm not only have a very high hydrogen permeance/permeability but also have a good hydrogen selectivity. Moreover, the good membrane stability was verified by the long-term operation under the condition of hydrogen permeation and the gas exchange cycles between pure hydrogen and pure helium. The good membrane stability was interpreted by estimating the shear stress of the special membrane configuration with small gap between Pd membrane and porous substrate layer.     

Fabrication of high performance Matrimid/polysulfone dual-layer hollow fiber membranes for O2/N2 separation

Matrimid/polysulfone (PSf) dual-layer hollow fiber membranes were fabricated by using co-extrusion and dry-jet wet-spinning phase-inversion techniques. The effects of the spinning dope composition, spinneret dimension, spinneret temperature and the air gap distance on the hollow fiber membranes separation performance were studied. Aging phenomenon was also studied. After coated by 3 wt% silicon solution, the hollow fiber membranes have an O₂/N₂ selectivity of 7.55 at 25 °C, 506.625 kPa which exceeds the intrinsic value of Matrimid. The membranes have an O₂ permeance of 9.36 GPU with an apparent dense-layer thickness of 1421 Å calculated from the O₂ permeability. SEM images show the high porosity underneath the dense skin. It indicates that non-solvent addition is not necessary in the inner spinning dope to induce the macroviod formation. The binodals of the Matrimid/solvent/H₂O and PSf/solvent/H₂O indicate that the composition of the spinning dope plays an important role in the structure and the gas separation performance of the dual-layer hollow fiber membranes. The delayed demixing of the inner spinning dope may fabricate low resistance support layers in the dual-layer hollow fiber membranes.     

Effect of the preparation conditions on the formation of asymmetric poly(vinylidene fluoride) hollow fibre membranes with a dense skin

Integrally skinned asymmetric poly(vinylidene fluoride) hollow fibre membranes were prepared and characterized. The effects of phase inversion methods (dry-wet or wet) and spinning conditions, such as the type of solvent (NMP, DMAc), the concentration of polymer in dope solution, temperature of the external coagulation bath and the composition of the inner coagulant on the morphology and on the formation of a dense skin layer were investigated. The structure of the membranes was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and the gas permeation properties with six different gases (He, H₂, N₂, O₂, CH₄ and CO₂) were measured at 25 °C to confirm the integrity of the selective skin layer. Under the proper conditions highly selective and permeable PVDF hollow fibre membranes were thus obtained by dry-wet spinning of a 30 wt.% PVDF solution in DMAc, using hot water (50 °C) as the external coagulant and a bore fluid of pure water as the internal coagulant. The best membrane had a selective outer skin with an effective thickness of approximately 0.2 μm. The ideal selectivity of the hollow fibres approached or even exceeded the intrinsic ideal selectivity of a dense PVDF film, for instance the selectivity for He over N₂ was 86.2 for the hollow fibre, whereas it was 83.5 for a dense PVDF reference film. DSC and FT-IR/ATR analysis indicated a higher fraction of the β-crystal phase in the selective skin and a high overall crystallinity than in the melt-processed film. The latter explains the relatively high selectivity and low permeability of the membranes. Intrinsic polymer properties make the membranes also suitable for vapour transport than for gas separation.     

Capillary membrane reactors: Performance and applications

Purpose of the work is the characterization of capillary membranes with entrapped cells, from a mechanical and a kinetic point of view.Polysulphone capillary membranes have been prepared by the phase inversion technique, extruding in a specially designed apparatus the polymer solution containing lyophilized cells of thermophilic Sulfolobus solfataricus.The mechanical properties of such capillary membranes were tested and compared to those of cell-free fibres in terms of bubble formation point and outburst under pressure, and of their behaviour under a stress—strain analysis.Fibres permeability to water and to the acetate buffer (pH 5) used in kinetic experiments was determined in the range of temperatures from 25°C to 70°C.Regarding the entrapped cells kinetic behaviour, an enzyme in particular was selected in bacterial enzymatic heritage, i.e. β-galactosidase, for the conversion of lactose to glucose and galactose. Kinetic assays were performed on bundles of fibres assembled in tube and shell reactors at different substrate concentrations and transmembrane pressures.     

聚全氟乙丙烯中空纤维膜研究

以聚全氟乙丙烯(FEP)为成膜聚合物,复合无机粒子为成孔剂,邻苯二甲酸二辛酯(DOP)为稀释剂,采用熔融纺丝工艺制备得到FEP中空纤维膜.分析和讨论了不同成膜体系对FEP中空纤维膜热性能、动态力学性能和力学性能的影响,并对膜的纯水通量和孔径分布进行表征.用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)观察了膜的横断面和表面形貌.结果表明,所得FEP中空纤维膜为由溶出微孔和界面微孔组成的海绵状孔结构.随着成孔剂含量的增加,成孔剂在成膜体系中分散程度变差,容易发生团聚,最终导致膜孔径变大,孔径分布变宽.成孔剂和稀释剂对FEP中空纤维膜的热性能和动态力学性能影响较小.当FEP含量增加到70 wt％时,膜表面容易形成一层致密层,降低了膜的通透性.     

ZIF-8 based polysulfone hollow fiber membranes for natural gas purification

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have received worldwide attention for natural gas purification due to their superior performance in terms of permeability and selectivity. The zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) blended polysulfone (PSf) membranes have been fabricated for natural gas purification. ZIF-8 was selected due to its low cost, remarkable thermal and chemical stabilities, and tunable microporous structure. The neat PSf hollow fiber membrane and mixed matrix hollow fiber membranes incorporated with the various ZIF-8 loadings up to 1.25% were fabricated. The prepared membranes were evaluated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and gas separation performance. The low loading of ZIF-8 nanoparticles to the MMM improved thermal stability and glass transition temperature and yielded low surface roughness. MMMs were tested using pure gases with a significant improvement of 36% in CO₂ permeability and 28% in CO₂/CH₄ selectivity compared to the neat membrane. However, the high ZIF-8 loading reduced the separation performances. Moreover, CO₂/CH₄ selectivity decreased at elevated pressure (8 and 10 bar) due to CO₂-induced plasticization. Previously, the incorporation of ZIF-8 particles has primarily been subjected to the fabrication of flat sheet membranes, whereas this work focused on hollow fiber membranes which are rarely investigated. Hence, the promising results obtained at low feed pressure in this study demonstrated the potential of ZIF-8 based hollow fiber membrane for natural gas purification.     

Study on the effect of spinning conditions and surface treatment on the geometry and performance of polymeric hollow-fibre membranes

Hollow-fibre membranes were prepared by the wet-dry spinning technique from polyether sulfone (PES). The effect of spinning conditions such as the flow-rate of the internal coagulant and the flow-rate, composition and temperature of the polymer solution on the geometry and performance of hollow fibres was studied. In particular, five different ratios of pore former/polymer covering the range 0.2–1.0 were investigated while the polymer content was kept constant. Since the viscosity of the spinning dope affects the morphology of the hollow-fibre membrane, hollow fibres were prepared at different temperatures of the spinning dope from 25 to 60°. By scanning electron microscopy (SEM) two layers sandwiching a finger-like cavity structure were observed. Also, the surface on the bore side of the hollow fibre was modified by grafting polyethylene glycol (PEG) with γ-ray irradiation to improve the ultrafiltration performance.     

Ultrasound-induced formation of polymer capsules by precipitation with compressed CO2

A novel route to synthesize polymer hollow capsules was proposed by combination of CO₂ antisolvent (poor solvent) and ultrasound techniques. In this method, a polymer in solution was precipitated by dissolving compressed CO₂ antisolvent into the polymer solution, during which the ultrasonic irradiation was introduced. The hollow nanospheres and nanotubes of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) have been successfully prepared. This method has some potential advantages for applications, such as simple, rapid, without the use of template, and the solution can be easily recycled.     

The effects of spinneret dimension and hollow fiber dimension on gas separation performance of ultra-thin defect-free Torlon hollow fiber membranes

A defect-free as-spun hollow fiber membrane with an ultra-thin dense-selective layer is the most desirable configuration in gas separation because it may potentially eliminate post-treatments such as silicone rubber costing, simplify membrane manufacture, and reduce production costs. However, the formation of defect-free as-spun hollow fiber membranes with an ultra-thin dense-selective layer is an extremely challenging task because of the complexity of phase inversion process during the hollow fiber fabrication and the trade-off between the formation of an ultra-thin dense-selective layer and the generation of defects. We have for the first time successfully produced defect-free as-spun Torlon^® hollow fiber membranes with an ultra-thin dense layer of around 540 Å from only a one polymer/one solvent binary system at reasonable take-up speeds of 10–50 m/min. The best O₂/N₂ permselectivity achieved is much higher than the intrinsic value of Torlon^® dense films. This is also a pioneering work systematically studying the effects of spinneret dimension and hollow fiber dimension on gas separation performance. Several interesting and important phenomena have been discovered and never been reported: (1) as the spinneret dimension increases, a higher elongation draw ratio is required to produce defect-free hollow fiber membranes; (2) the bigger the spinneret dimension, the higher the selectivity; (3) the bigger the spinneret dimension, the thinner the dense-selective layer. Mechanisms to explain the above observation have been elaborated. The keys to produce hollow fiber with enhanced permselectivity are to (1) remove die swell effects, (2) achieve finer monodisperse interstitial chain space at the dense-selective layer by an optimal draw ratio, and (3) control membrane formation by varying spinneret dimension.     

中空纤维复合膜

中空纤维复合膜是分离膜的一种,它是由两种(或两种以上)不同的材料采用一定的制备工艺复合而成的,其优点是将中空纤维的结构特点(如自支撑等)和复合膜的分离优势(如高选择性高通量等)有机结合.本文首先介绍了中空纤维复合膜的基膜及复合层所用到的材料(或添加材料),并按照中空纤维复合膜的结构特点对其进行了简单的分类,并重点论述了中空纤维复合膜的制备设备及工艺.最后论述了中空纤维复合膜在渗透汽化、气体分离和纳滤等领域的研究进展和应用情况,指出中空纤维复合膜需要继续深入的研究内容.     

Fabrication of blend hydrophilic polyamide imide (Torlon®)-sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) hollow fiber membranes for oily wastewater treatment

Blend hydrophilic polyamide imide (PAI)-sulfonated poly (ether ether keton) (SPEEK) hollow fiber membranes were fabricated for oil-water emulsion separation. The structure and performance of the membranes were examined by FESEM analysis, N₂ permeation, overall porosity, collapsing pressure, water contact angle, pure water flux, molecular weight cutoff (MWCO), and oil rejection tests. By studying ternary phase diagrams of polymer/solvent-additive/water system, the higher phase-inversion rate was confirmed for the solutions prepared at higher PAI/SPEEK ratio. A more open structure with larger finger-likes was observed by increasing PAI/SPEEK ratio. Mean pore size of 81 nm, overall porosity of 79% and water contact angle of 58° were obtained for the improved membrane prepared by PAI/SPEEK ratio of 85/15. Increasing SPEEK ratio resulted in lower mechanical stability in terms of collapsing pressure. Pure water flux of about 2.5 times of the plain PAI membrane was found for the improved membrane. MWCO of 460 kDa was found for the improved blend membrane. From oil rejection test, all the membranes demonstrated an oil rejection of over 95%. The improved membrane showed a lower rate of permeate flux reduction compared to the plain membrane which was related to the smaller fouling possibility. Less fouling resistance of the improved membrane was related to the higher flux recovery ratio (about 92%). For all the membranes, the dominant fouling mechanism was found to be the cake filtration. The improved PAI-SPEEK hollow fiber membranes was found to be practical for ultrafiltration of oily wastewaters.     

同质编织管增强型聚丙烯腈中空纤维膜研究

利用二维编织技术将聚丙烯腈(PAN)纤维编织成中空编织管,以聚丙烯腈为成膜聚合物,以聚乙二醇为成孔剂,配制铸膜液,采用同心圆纺丝法制备同质编织管增强型聚丙烯腈中空纤维膜.研究结果表明,所得同质编织管增强型聚丙烯腈中空纤维膜的表面分离层具有类似于非对称膜的结构,铸膜液可渗入编织管纤维束中;随着编织管编织节距的增大,同质编织管增强型聚丙烯腈中空纤维膜表面分离层厚度减小,同时膜的平均孔径增大,膜的纯水通量随之增大;铸膜液渗入编织管纤维束的现象未影响膜的通透性能;编织管的断裂强度最大可达100 MPa以上.通过水浴振荡、超声波水浴振荡及等力拉伸3种方法测试了同质编织管增强型中空纤维膜和异质编织管增强型中空纤维膜中编织管与表面分离层之间的界面结合性能,结果表明前者的界面结合性能优于后者.     

Visualization of the effect of die shear rate on the outer surface morphology of ultrafiltration membranes by AFM

We have demonstrated the effect of shear rate on the outer surface morphology of polyethersulfone (PES) hollow fiber ultrafiltration (UF) membranes by an atomic force microscope (AFM). A digital instrument (DI) AFM was used to reveal the surface morphology of hollow fiber membranes prepared with varying shear rates from 1305 to 11,066 s⁻¹. A tapping mode was operated for studying the polymeric membranes when AFM was applied to image the surface of a fiber in air. AFM images of the outer surface have revealed that the nodules in the outer skin appeared to be randomly arranged at low shear rates but formed bands that were aligned in the direction of dope extrusion when the shear rate increased. Both nodule sizes in the fiber spinning and transversal directions decreased with increasing shear rate possibly because of chain disentanglement and thermodynamically favored. This result has not been reported so far. The analysis of AFM images showed that the roughness of the outer surface of hollow fiber UF membranes in terms of R_ms, R_a and R_z decreased with an increase in shear rate. The pure water flux of the membranes was nearly proportional to the mean roughness and higher mean roughness resulted in lower separation of membranes. AFM data also imply that there was a certain critical value of shear rate around 3585 s⁻¹, the roughness decreased significantly with an increase in shear rate below 3585 s⁻¹ and almost leveled off or in a much slower pace above this shear rate.     

Microscopic behavior of polyvinylpyrrolidone hydrophilizing agents on phase inversion polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes for hemofiltration

In some biomedical applications, hollow fiber membranes are highly demanded with desirably asymmetric structures, characterized by a dense selective inner skin with which the blood is in contact and supported by porous outer-layer. In this work, such membranes have been successfully prepared by appropriately adjusting membrane manufacturing parameters. Different molecular weights of polyvinylpyrrolidones (PVPs) were used as the hydrophilizing additives for membrane spinning in order to examine their underlying effects on membrane physicochemical properties, morphological structure, solute rejection behavior and hemofiltration performance. Numerous state-of-the-art characterizations on the resultant membranes showed that the hollow fiber membranes spun with the PVP having a molecular weight of 360K as the additive have the most hydrophilic, smooth and highly net negative charged inner surfaces. These membranes also exhibit the best hemofiltration performance in terms of the characteristically least fouling behavior with a normalized flux above 90%, the highest retention of serum albumin for more than 90%, and the best clearance for the simulated β₂-microglobulin toxin in blood waste.     

ADSORPTION OF UO2 2+ BY POLYETHYLENE HOLLOW FIBER MEMBRANE WITH AMIDOXIME GROUP

The polyethylene (PE) membrane was prepared by the radiation-induced grafting of acrylonitrile (AN) onto PE hollow fiber and by the subsequent amidoximation of cyano groups in poly-AN graft chains. The adsorption characteristics of the chelating hollow fiber membrane was examined as the solution of UO₂ ²⁺ permeated across the chelating hollow fiber membrane. The inner and outer diameter increased with an increasing grafting yield, whereas, the pure water flux and pore diameter decreased with an increasing grafting yield. The adsorption of UO₂ ²⁺ by the chelating hollow fiber membranes increased with an increasing amidoxime group. The adsorbed amount of UO₂ ²⁺ in the uranyl acetate solution was higher than that in the uranyl nitrate solution. The adsorbed amount of UO₂ ²⁺ is higher than that of Cu²⁺ when the solution of UO₂ ²⁺ and Cu²⁺ permeated across the chelating membrane, respectively. The adsorption characteristics of UO₂ ²⁺ by the amidoxime group-chelating fiber membrane in the presence of Na¹⁺ and Ca²⁺ showed a high selectivity for UO₂ ²⁺ even though there was a high concen-tration of Na¹⁺ and Ca²⁺ in the inlet solution.     

The role of additives on dope rheology and membrane formation of defect-free Torlon hollow fibers for gas separation

The high demands on high performance membranes for energy, water and life science usages provide the impetus for membrane scientists to search for a comprehensive understanding of membrane formation from molecular level to design membranes with desirable configuration and separation performance. This pioneering work is to elaborate the importance of polymer rheology on hollow fiber formation and reveal the integrated science bridging polymer fundamentals such as polymer cluster size, shear and elongational viscosities, molecular orientation, stress relaxation to membrane microstructure and separation performance for gas separation. Torlon^® poly(amide imide) was employed in this study with various solvent/nonsolvent additives. The effects of additives on polymeric cluster size, hydrogen bonding and dope rheology during the phase inversion have been examined. It is found that hydrogen bonding and strain-hardening characteristics play very important roles in dope rheology and membrane separation performance. Torlon^® possesses strong hydrogen bonds with NMP/water mixtures, the addition of a small amount of water enlarges polymer cluster size, strengthen molecular network (i.e., strain hardening) and facilitate macrovoid-free morphology. However, strong hydrogen bonding may retard chain unfolding during spinning, induce faster relaxation for highly oriented dense-selective skin, and thus reduce gas-pair selectivity. By adjusting dope chemistry and spinning conditions with balanced solubility parameters and dope rheology, we have developed defect-free Torlon^® hollow fiber membranes with an O₂/N₂ selectivity of 8.55 and an ultra-thin layer of 488 Å simply using water as the additive. Fibers spun from dopes containing other additives have the optimal O₂/N₂ selectivity varying from 7.69 to 9.97 at 25 ± 2 °C, and the dense layer thickness varying from 500 Å to 2000 Å. Their corresponding mixed-gas O₂/N₂ selectivity for compressed air varies from 7.12 to 9.00.