Speaker: Dr. Nikolaos Koromilas
Affiliation: Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT)
Title: Development of Polymeric Membranes for water purification
Place: A. Payatakes Seminar Room
Date: 12/06/2018
Time: 16:00 (coffee & cookies at 15:45)
Abstract: Water pollution is one of the most critical global challenges in the modern era. The need for an adequate supply of clean water has led to new emerging technologies. Due to its energy-saving and cost-effective features, membrane technology has become the most effective platform for water purification, including seawater as well as municipal or industrial wastewater treatment. Among them, organic polymeric membranes possess several advantages against inorganic membranes. In the present work, polymeric membranes based on a polysulfone-based polymeric matrix were successfully prepared via non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) method.
The polysulfonetype polymer poly[2-(4-(diphenylsulfonyl)phenoxy)-6-(4-phenoxy)pyridine] (PDSPP) was used as the hydrophobic matrix and combined with its sulfonated derivative (SPDSPP) and a polymeric porogen in order to enhance the hydrophilicity and increase the porosity of the overall membrane system. The variables tested included PDSPP/SPDSPP/porogen w/w composition, type of porogen, type of solvent, type and temperature of nonsolvent, etc. Scanning Electron Miscroscopy (SEM), Scanning Electron Miscroscopy-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Water Uptake % (WU %), Porosity %, Pure Water Flux (PWF), Pure Water Permeability (PWP), Attenuated Total Reflectance-Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-IR) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) were the driving procedures and techniques used to evaluate the impact of the different parameters. The results shown that using different conditions the morphology of the membranes can be altered and therefore optimized, making them ideal candidates for water purification membranes.