A novel electrospun, hydrophobic, and elastomeric styrene-butadiene-styrene membrane for membrane distillation applications

Abstract

In this study, a novel hydrophobic, microporous membrane was fabricated from styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer using electrospinning and evaluated for membrane distillation applications. Compared to a commercially available polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, the SBS membrane had larger membrane pore size and fiber diameter and comparable membrane porosity. The fabricated SBS showed slightly lower water flux than the PTFE membrane because it was two times thicker. However, the SBS membrane had better salt rejection and most importantly could be fabricated via a simple process. The SBS membrane was also more hydrophobic than the reference PTFE membrane. In particular, as temperature of the reference water liquid increased to 60 °C, the SBS membrane remained hydrophobic with a contact angle of 100° whereas the PTFE became hydrophilic with a contact angle of less than 90°. The hydrophobic membrane surface prevented the intrusion of liquid into the membrane pores, thus improving the salt rejection of the SBS membrane. In addition, the SBS membrane had superior mechanical strength over the PTFE membrane. Using the SBS membrane, stable water flux was achieved throughout an extended MD operation period of 120 hours to produce excellent quality distillate (over 99.7% salt rejection) from seawater.

Electrospun Al 2 O 3 hydrophobic functionalized membranes for heavy metal recovery using direct contact membrane distillation

“…The values are in line with reported data in literature and within the range required for optimal operation for MD operations. Duong et al 26 reported a porosity of 81% for SBS membranes used in their study. The results obtained in the current study are higher in the case of the SBS membrane in addition to a much higher value of 92% that was reported for the doped SBS Al NPs.…”

“…Full details on the method used in wet-dry flow are presented in my reports. 2,4,26,29,37 Porefil has a low surface tension (15.8 mN m −1 ) and wets the membrane surface fully. The contact angle is near zero (θ = 0).…”

“…In addition, the fabrication of SBS membranes is more cost and energy effective compared to the available PTFE and PVDF membranes. 26 Indeed, the use of SBS membranes was reported with respect to variety of applications such as ethanol enrichment and the removal of volatile compounds from wastewater. The most prominent feature is the ability to create a hydrophobic membrane that can be further enhance by functionalization.…”

Membrane distillation: recent technological developments and advancements in membrane materials

“…& Styrene-butadiene styrene [118,119] & PS [120] To improve mechanical strength and mass transfer, duallayer ENMs have also been developed, e.g., with a polyacryl o n i t r i l e ( P A N ) s u p p o r t l a y e r u n d e r a P V D F / hexafluoropropylene active separation layer [121]. In another investigation, the PVDF ENM served as the separation layer and PS served as the support, and together, they showed superior performance in comparison to PVDF ENMs without PS support [122].…”

Electrospun fiber mats from poly(alloocimene-b-isobutylene-b-alloocimene) thermoplastic elastomer

“…Various TPEs have been electrospun in the last two decades. Sencadas et al studied the electrospinning of poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) TPE into fiber membranes and showed that the membranes were hydrophobic with a contact angle of 132 and the tensile strength was 0.525 MPa with 345% elongation at break [3].…”