Issue 3, 2022

Design of an efficient, tunable and scalable freestanding flexible membrane for filter application

Abstract

To address the global challenge of water pollution, membrane-based technologies are being used as a dignified separation technology. However, designing low-cost, reusable, freestanding and flexible membranes for wastewater treatment with tunable pore size, good mechanical strength, and high separation efficiency is still a major challenge. Herein, we report the development of a scalable, reusable, freestanding, flexible and functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotube (FMWCNT) membrane filter with tunable pore size for wastewater treatment, which has attractive attributes such as high separation efficiency (>99% for organic dyes and ∼80% for salts), permeance (∼225 L h−1 m−2 bar−1), tensile strength (∼6 MPa), and reusability of both the membrane as well as contaminants separately. This FMWCNTs membrane filter has been developed by a simple vacuum-assisted filtration technique followed by the synthesis of MWCNTs using a cost-effective spray pyrolysis assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique and chemical functionalization. This study deals with understanding the rejection, retrieval, and reusability of both the membranes as well as waterborne contaminants separately. The developed membrane filter has potential utility in many applications such as wastewater treatment, food industry, and life sciences due to its robust mechanical and separation performance characteristics.

Graphical abstract: Design of an efficient, tunable and scalable freestanding flexible membrane for filter application

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Oct 2021
Accepted
10 Dec 2021
First published
10 Jan 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2022,12, 1550-1562

Design of an efficient, tunable and scalable freestanding flexible membrane for filter application

S. K. Pandey and A. Srivastava, RSC Adv., 2022, 12, 1550 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA07423G

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