Preparation and characterisation of nanostructured coated membranes

Nanostructured coated membranes have been produced by polymerization of a bicontinuous microemulsion (PBM). In this work, a commercial non-polymerisable surfactant has been used for the formation of bicontinuous microemulsion and compared with synthesized polymerisable surfactant used in a previous work [1]. In particular, the PBM has been employed as coating material of commercial Polyethersulfon (PES) membranes. The advantage of using a commercial surfactant for producing the PBM membrane is mainly due to the reducing of the costs in the membrane fabrication. In the bicontinuous microemulsion the surfactant is located at the interface between the oil and the water microdomains forming a network of interconnected water and oil channels. The oil channels can be polymerized to form the matrix of liquid membranes, while the aqueous phase remains unchanged. For this reason, the microemulsions may be used for all purposes as membranes. By varying the ratio of the components constituting the microemulsion (water, oil surfactant and cosurfactant) it was possible to control membrane morphology as, for example, size and pore distribution, and tailor its properties (i,e. contact angle). Then, the performance of the produced membranes has been evaluated in terms of water permeability and rejection of organic compounds at lab scale. Then, the membranes have been allocated in MBR modules and tested using textile water effluents using a MBR pilot plant. The pollutants in textile wastewater are generally represented by the dyes, heavy metals and suspended solids. The results show the high potentiality of the novel PBM coated membranes in comparison with the commercial ones employed. Reference A. Figoli, J. Joinkis, B. Gabriele, G. De Luca, F. Galiano, A. S. Deowan, Bicontinuous microemulsion polymerized coating for water treatment, Patent Application N. GE2013A000096, filed on 27/09/2013