Zirconia and titania composite membranes for liquid phase separation: preparation and characterization [An article from: Desalination]

This digital document is a journal article from Desalination, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Crack-free tubular TiO"2/ZrO"2 composite ceramic membranes on ZrO"2 supports have been successfully synthesized from colloidal titania sols by the sol-gel technique. The pore sizes of the prepared membrane were mainly controlled by the sol properties and the calcination conditions. The influence of different parameters such as additives and solvents on the hydrolysis and polycondensation properties of the sols was studied by DTA-TG and viscosity measurements. The TiO"2/ZrO"2 composite ceramic membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Composite membrane permeability and rejection properties were also investigated. The results proved that the range of composite membrane flux and retention could be controlled by controlling the amount of polyethylene glycol (PEG). PEG in titania sol systems was suitable for use as an organic additive to fabricate crack-free composite membranes. The larger the amount of PEG added to the precursor solution, the larger the size and number of pores produced in the prepared membranes when the PEG was completely combusted during heat-treatment. By controlling the amount of PEG added to the precursor solution, TiO"2/ZrO"2 composite ceramic membranes with different pore sizes were prepared, which can be used in photocatalytic membrane reactors and applied in liquid-liquid or liquid-solid separation in future research.