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Heatable carbon nanotube composite membranes for sustainable recovery from biofouling
Citation:
Alvarez, N., R. Noga, S. Chae, G. Sorial, H. Ryu, AND V. Shanov. Heatable carbon nanotube composite membranes for sustainable recovery from biofouling. Biofouling. Taylor & Francis Group, London, Uk, 33(10):847-854, (2017).
Impact/Purpose:
Ohmic heating of the PC/CNT membrane could be an effective solution to combat biofouling and complications associated with membrane-based water filtration.
Description:
Membrane filtration is one of the most reliable methods for water and wastewater treatment, however wider application is limited due to biofouling caused by the accumulation of microorganisms on the membrane’s surface. Here we report a water filtration membrane with self-cleaning properties. This is a novel and highly desirable approach due to its simplicity and economic advantages to combat microbial activity and biofouling. Microfiltration polycarbonate (PC)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) hybrid membranes were fabricated using drawable CNTs that provide the electrically conductivity/resistivity to the membrane. Surface temperatures exceeding 100 oC are reachable in under 10 s with applying less than 25V potential and consuming 2-3 W of power. This temperature is above of what most microbial life, bacteria and viruses can handle. When employing this membrane, filtered Escherichia coli collected on its surface were successfully annihilated within one minute.
URLs/Downloads:
Free access through PubMed Central
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08927014.2017.1376322