Carbon nanotube composite membranes for small 'designer' water treatment systems

Small water systems that serve fewer than a few thousand persons are often less safe and less sustainable than large drinking water systems due to lack of suitable technologies. This ongoing research aims to develop a novel water treatment technology for small communities. By layering structured, fu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water science & technology. Water supply 2014-01, Vol.14 (5), p.917-923
Main Authors: HAIOU HUANG, FAIRBROTHER, Howard, TEYCHENE, Benoit, AJMANI, Gaurav, CHALEW, Talia Abbott, GALLAGHER, Miranda J, HYUNHEE CHO, SCHWAB, Kellogg, JACANGELO, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antifouling
Antifouling substances
Applied sciences
Buildings. Public works
Cadmium
Carbon nanotubes
Catalysis
Chemical Sciences
Communities
Composition
Contaminants
Drinking water
Energy efficiency
Exact sciences and technology
Filtration
Heavy metals
Hollow fiber membranes
Low pressure
Membrane filtration
Membranes
Metals
Nanotechnology
Nanotubes
Organic matter
Removal
Treated water
Viruses
Water pollution
Water supply. Pipings. Water treatment
Water treatment
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Small water systems that serve fewer than a few thousand persons are often less safe and less sustainable than large drinking water systems due to lack of suitable technologies. This ongoing research aims to develop a novel water treatment technology for small communities. By layering structured, functional carbon nanotubes (CNT) onto low pressure membranes (LPMs), composite membranes were prepared to remove different organic and inorganic contaminants from water, including heavy metals, viruses, natural organic matter, and organic micropollutants. The removal efficiencies varied from over 99.9% (for cadmium) to above 60% (for humic substances). A low-cost CNT formed an antifouling layer that removed membrane foulants by depth filtration, thereby extending the membrane filtration cycle over five-fold. When the CNTs were layered inside hollow fiber membranes, superb backwashable properties were observed, allowing the operation of CNT-modified membranes under full-scale treatment conditions. Moreover, a systematic study of CNT rejection by LPMs found that commercially available LPMs efficiently prevented CNT breakthrough, thus ensuring nanosafety of the treated water. By varying the composition and structure of functional CNT layers, energy-efficient composite membranes may be economically produced for designer water treatment systems and applied in small communities.
ISSN:1606-9749
1607-0798
DOI:10.2166/ws.2014.056