Journal of Membrane Science & Technology

Preparation and characterization of PVDF/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite membranes for air gap membrane distillation

2^nd International Conference on Membrane Science and Technology

September 13-14, 2018 | London, UK

Ahmed Abdel-Karim, Jose Miguel Luque-Alled, Sebastian Leaper, Monica Alberto, Xiaolei Fan, Aravind Vijayaraghavan, Tarek A Gad-Allah,Amer S El-Kalliny, Sayed I A Ahmed and Patricia Gorgojo

The University of Manchester, UK
The University of Manchester, UK
National Research Centre, Egypt
Ain Shams University, Egypt

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Membr Sci Technol

Abstract:

Water represents the main driving force of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development as well. In this context, membrane distillation (MD) is a promising technology to produce clean water via desalting highly saline waters. Different module configurations are well-established such as direct contact (DCMD), air gap (AGMD) and sweeping gas (SGMD). In this work, AGMD module was selected to skip the disadvantages associated with other configurations such as wetting problems or high energy consumption; only about 1 kWh/m3 energy consumption has been reported by Gazagnes, et al. 2006 which is much lower than typical values reported for DCMD and other MD processes. Hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes are generally used in AGMD; however, its performance in terms of permeation flux and salt rejection has room for improvement. In this study, different loads of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) (0???0.7 wt%) were blended with PVDF to investigate its effect on the MD performance. GO was prepared from graphite using a modified hummer???s method and rGO was further prepared using an eco-friendly reductant (i.e. Vit. C). Surface chemistry of the fabricated membranes (bare PVDF membrane as well as hybrids containing rGO) was studied via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Membranes microstructures have been visualized using SEM and AFM. Besides, the membrane properties, including contact angle, pore size, porosity and pore size distribution, were systematically examined. The results revealed that PVDF/ 0.5% rGO membranes exhibit better membrane morphology, pore size, pore structure and hydrophobicity, and hence, delivered better distillation performance in comparison with their PVDF membrane counterpart (2.4 LMH for PVDF up to 6.8 LMH for modified PVDF/0.5rGO with SR more than 99.9% for all membranes). The graphical abstract in Fig. 1 summarizes the work. Recent Publications 1. Abdel-Karim A, Leaper S, Alberto M, Vijayaraghavan A, Fan X, et al. (2018) High flux and fouling resistant flat sheet polyethersulfone membranes incorporated with graphene oxide for ultrafiltration applications. Chem. Eng. J. 334:789??? 799. 2. Khalid A, Abdel-Karim A, Atieh M, Javed S and McKay G (2018) PEG-CNTs nanocomposite PSU membranes for wastewater treatment by membrane bioreactor. Sep.Pur. Tech. 190:165???176. 3. Abdel-Karim A, Gad-Allah T, El-Kalliny A, Ahmed S, Souaya E, et al. (2017) Fabrication of modified polyethersulfone membranes for wastewater treatment by submerged membrane bioreactor. Sep. Pur. Tech. 175:36???46.

Biography :

Ahmed Abdel-Karim started his work at the National Research Centre in October 2010. He got his MSc from Cairo University, May 2014. Since August 2015, he has been registered as a PhD student at Ain-Shams University. His research focuses on the treatment of water/wastewater through fabricated microfiltration/ultrafiltration membranes, having novel additives to overcome membrane fouling which impedes a faster growth of the membrane science. Hence, his core motive is to downsize the flux and rejection trade-off via providing membranes has high flux and rejection values. He is eager to update his knowledge to provide reasonable solutions for the increased-water demanding issue. Besides, he started his journey to fabricate MF membranes to be used in desalting highly saline water via MD.

E-mail: ahmed.ahmedabdelkarim@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk