The first year of the project activity covers the period from January 01, 2017 up to December 31, 2017. The project proposes a joint Mexican-Italian research on non-pollutants separation systems for waters purification arising from industrial wastes with recovery of contaminating species. The proposal is addressed to the development and characterisation of different membranes kinds (solid, liquid, etc.) having morphology and properties to be tuned as a function of the selected final process. It is foreseen the employment of innovative separation technics such as aqueous two phases systems (ATPS) and ionic liquids (ILs), testing the membranes through different filtration methods, identifying both the membrane and process for the water purification from pollutants, metal ions, organic species with high efficiency and grade of purity. In this first year of activity, the attention was devoted to the development of solid asymmetric Polysulphone (PSF) membranes for filtration/separation processes (Micro-MF, Ultra-UF, NanoFiltration-NF). In the separation processes, PSF-based membranes represent one of the most important materials with large benefits due to the polymer hydrolytic stability, chemical resistance, high strength, creep resistance, etc. For these reasons, such material can be employed for diversified applications. In the context of a sustainable economy, the water purification through the industrial grade wastewaters treatment has got extremely important environmental and economic lapels. The membrane represents the tool to separate and, eventually, to recovery the different contaminants. The characteristics of hydrophobicity and the poor fouling resistance decreasing the water permeability, molecular selectivity and membrane lifetime represent the main drawbacks for PSF membranes utilization, aspects that have been extensively investigated. Naturally, the membrane preparation method plays a key role. In the present work, in order to have asymmetric porous and more hydrophilic membranes, the phase inversion method (IP) by non-solvent coagulation bath (NSCB) technique was used to prepare a series of membranes with different characteristics in terms of porosity, macro-voids size and shape depending on the used membrane formation parameters. The following experimental parameters for formation membrane were considered: non-solvent, de-mixing time, polymer solution concentration and introduction/concentration of surfactant. The membranes were characterised in terms of dimensional analysis, water retention capacity (WUp%), IR measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM (cross-section and surface), porosity percentage, BET analysis, dynamo-mechanical analysis (DMA), ThermoGravimetric Analysis and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TG-DSC), Contact Angle measurements (CA) and water permeability tests. Z-potential measurements are in progress. Such activity as well as the membranes characterisation was jointly performed from two partners depending on the devices availability, as requested from join lab project. Some important preliminary results were obtained. PSF membranes preparation procedure was defined with: determination of experimental operating condition; individuation of the main synthesis parameters to obtain AM-PSF membrane prototypes; determination of the surfactants function to be added to the polymer matrix to modify the hydrophilic properties; definition of the correct cross-section morphology and porosity for the different processes; deep characterisation of the developed membranes. Moreover, an advantageous joint activity between partners with reinforcement of the previous active collaboration and student's exchange was carried out, as required by the project.
"Joint laboratory on green separation processes for the wastewaters treatment and recovery of contaminating species". Laboratori Congiunti Bilaterali Internazionali del CNR (II call 2016) - tematico ICT (triennio 2017- 2019)". Proto. N. 0082227. 12 months Progress External Report N. 16/2018
R Pedicini;A Carbone;I Gatto;
2018
Abstract
The first year of the project activity covers the period from January 01, 2017 up to December 31, 2017. The project proposes a joint Mexican-Italian research on non-pollutants separation systems for waters purification arising from industrial wastes with recovery of contaminating species. The proposal is addressed to the development and characterisation of different membranes kinds (solid, liquid, etc.) having morphology and properties to be tuned as a function of the selected final process. It is foreseen the employment of innovative separation technics such as aqueous two phases systems (ATPS) and ionic liquids (ILs), testing the membranes through different filtration methods, identifying both the membrane and process for the water purification from pollutants, metal ions, organic species with high efficiency and grade of purity. In this first year of activity, the attention was devoted to the development of solid asymmetric Polysulphone (PSF) membranes for filtration/separation processes (Micro-MF, Ultra-UF, NanoFiltration-NF). In the separation processes, PSF-based membranes represent one of the most important materials with large benefits due to the polymer hydrolytic stability, chemical resistance, high strength, creep resistance, etc. For these reasons, such material can be employed for diversified applications. In the context of a sustainable economy, the water purification through the industrial grade wastewaters treatment has got extremely important environmental and economic lapels. The membrane represents the tool to separate and, eventually, to recovery the different contaminants. The characteristics of hydrophobicity and the poor fouling resistance decreasing the water permeability, molecular selectivity and membrane lifetime represent the main drawbacks for PSF membranes utilization, aspects that have been extensively investigated. Naturally, the membrane preparation method plays a key role. In the present work, in order to have asymmetric porous and more hydrophilic membranes, the phase inversion method (IP) by non-solvent coagulation bath (NSCB) technique was used to prepare a series of membranes with different characteristics in terms of porosity, macro-voids size and shape depending on the used membrane formation parameters. The following experimental parameters for formation membrane were considered: non-solvent, de-mixing time, polymer solution concentration and introduction/concentration of surfactant. The membranes were characterised in terms of dimensional analysis, water retention capacity (WUp%), IR measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEM (cross-section and surface), porosity percentage, BET analysis, dynamo-mechanical analysis (DMA), ThermoGravimetric Analysis and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TG-DSC), Contact Angle measurements (CA) and water permeability tests. Z-potential measurements are in progress. Such activity as well as the membranes characterisation was jointly performed from two partners depending on the devices availability, as requested from join lab project. Some important preliminary results were obtained. PSF membranes preparation procedure was defined with: determination of experimental operating condition; individuation of the main synthesis parameters to obtain AM-PSF membrane prototypes; determination of the surfactants function to be added to the polymer matrix to modify the hydrophilic properties; definition of the correct cross-section morphology and porosity for the different processes; deep characterisation of the developed membranes. Moreover, an advantageous joint activity between partners with reinforcement of the previous active collaboration and student's exchange was carried out, as required by the project.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
