Experimental Investigation of Fabricated Graphene Nanoplates/Polystyrene Nanofibrous Membrane for DCMD

Polymers

Ahmed El-Shazly¹  Abdulaziz Al-Qahatani²  Ahmad Abdullah³  Salah El-Mofty³  Mohammed Alquraish⁴  Colin Baily⁵ 

[1] Chemical and Petrochemicals Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Alexandria 21934, Egypt;Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Bisha, P.O. Box 551, Bisha 61922, Saudi Arabia;Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Bisha, P.O. Box 551, Bisha 67614, Saudi Arabia;Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Bisha, P.O. Box 551, Bisha 67614, Saudi Arabia;School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK;

关键词: membrane distillation;    ftir;    graphene nanoplates;    membrane fabrication;    electrospinning;   

DOI  :  10.3390/polym13203499

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In recent decades, the fabrication of composite membranes using nanoparticles has played a vital role in membrane distillation (MD) technique. It could make available membranes with superior characteristics as excellent candidates for MD technique. The most well-known obstacles regarding the MD method are the low productivity and high cost. Thus, fabricating membranes with superior properties is a significant challenge. In the current study, a composite membrane has been fabricated using 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 weight percent (wt.%) of graphene nanoparticles (GNPs) with polystyrene (PS) as a base polymer and characterized using SEM, FTIR, and contact angle. The characterization results prove the successful fabrication using electrospinning and the validity of the fabricated membranes to be applied to direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). In addition, a DCMD experimental setup has been designed to examine the performance of the fabricated membranes and compare the performance of blank PS with composite PS/GNPs membranes. The results show that all fabricated membranes produced an approximately similar average flux of about 10 kg/m² h, while the highest GNPs wt.% showed the highest salt rejection. Accordingly, this composite membrane has been examined at different operating parameters and showed stable performance. Moreover, feed temperature and the rate of flow have a positive impact on the overall performance of the DCMD.

【 授权许可】

Unknown