Effect of sol size on nanofiltration performance of a sol-gel derived microporous zirconia membrane

作     者：朱瓌之 姜迁 漆虹 徐南平 

作者机构：Membrane Science and Technology Research Center State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering Nanjing Tech University 

出 版 物：《Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering》 (中国化学工程学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2015年第23卷第1期

页      面：31-41页

核心收录：

学科分类：081704[工学-应用化学] 08[工学] 0817[工学-化学工程与技术] 081701[工学-化学工程] 

基　　金：Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(20906047,21276123) the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China(2012AA03A606) State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering(ZK201002) the Natural Science Research Plan of Jiangsu Universities(11KJB530006) the"Summit of the Six Top Talents"Program of Jiangsu Province a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions(PAPD) 

主　　题：Microporous ceramic membranes Zirconia Nanofiltration Sol size Sol–gel 

摘      要：This paper reports the effect of sol size on nanofiltration performances of sol–gel derived microporous zirconia membranes. Microstructure, pure water flux, molecular weight cut-off(MWCO) and salt retention of zirconia membranes derived from zirconia sols with different sizes were characterized. Thermal evolution, phase composition, microstructure and chemical stability of unsupported zirconia membranes(powder) were determined by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption–desorption and static solubility measurements. Results show that nanofiltration performance of zirconia membranes is highly dependent on sol size. The sol with an average size of 3.8 nm, which is smaller than the pore size of the γ-Al2O3support(pore size: 5–6 nm), forms a discontinuous zirconia separation layer because of excessive penetration of sol into the support. This zirconia membrane displays a MWCO value towards polyethylene glycol higher than 4000 Da. A smooth and defect-free zirconia membrane with a MWCO value of 1195 Da(pore size: 1.75 nm) and relative high retention rates towards Mg Cl2(76%) and Ca Cl2(64%) was successfully fabricated by dip-coating the sol with an appropriate size of 8.6 nm. Zirconia sol with an average size of 12 nm exhibits colloidal nature and forms a zirconia membrane with a MWCO value of 2332 Da(pore size: 2.47 nm). This promising microporous zirconia membrane presents sufficiently high chemical stability in a wide p H range of 1–12.