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Stimuli-Responsive Membranes from Mesophase Templating

中间相模板的刺激响应膜

基本信息

批准号：
2212894
负责人：
Reza Foudazi
金额：
$ 31.49万
依托单位：
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-10-01 至 2023-06-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2212894&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Stimuli Responsive Membranes Mesophase Templating

项目摘要

Water scarcity is a major issue facing the world today. As the world population continues to grow, water resources become scarcer, particularly brackish water in arid and semi-arid regions such as the southwestern U.S. Adequate access to low-cost, energy-efficient, and environmentally sustainable methods for advanced water treatment requires development and characterization of new membrane technologies. Water treatment processes typically use several types of membranes, including microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis membranes. Ultrafiltration membranes play a key role in the removal of suspended particles, viruses, and bacteria. Ultrafiltration membranes are also among the most commonly employed separation techniques, with applications in food processing, chemical manufacturing, and protein purification. Despite their industrial relevance, ultrafiltration membranes are produced by a method called non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS), which requires the use of large quantities of organic solvents. Membranes produced by the NIPS process are also anisotropic with low surface porosity, leading to increased fouling on the surface of the membrane. The overall goal of this project is to develop ultrafiltration membranes through cost-effective green chemistry, while simultaneously increasing their permeability, to reduce the cost and energy of water treatment. Research and education are integrated in the project through undergraduate research opportunities and the development of research-related course materials. Fouling control, particularly the control of biofouling, has been a major focus of wastewater and water treatment research. However, many previously proposed methods to overcome fouling are neither cost-effective nor extensible to different chemical structures and polymers. Since filtration processes result in membrane fouling that reduces the flux over the time, a surface washing process can be utilized to clean the surface of a membrane. However, the low surface porosity of NIPS membranes intensifies the fouling, which cannot completely be removed through backwashing. Backwashing is also a major energy consumption step in filtration. Ultrafiltration membranes with (i) improved permeability and decreased fouling, without compromising the rejection rate, and (ii) stimuli-responsive behavior to aid in surface washing are needed. The ability to produce these membranes in an eco-friendly manner without the need to synthesize new or costly chemicals also remains an outstanding technological challenge. The PI proposes to address these challenges using an organic-solvent-free templating approach to produce nanoporous polymers for ultrafiltration applications. Amphiphilic block copolymer self-assembly in mixtures of water and an oil phase containing monomers will be used as a template. Monomers in the oil phase, upon polymerization, undergo a conformation-change response to temperature and pH stimuli due to change in hydrophobicity. The pore size of such membranes can be manipulated for controlling the molecular weight cut-off and anti-fouling behavior. Because a higher density of nanometer-sized pores can be uniformly incorporated into the polymers relative to existing ultrafiltration membrane technology, the permeability of membranes produced from this method is also expected to exceed that of commercial products without compromising the rejection rate. Membrane structure will be characterized using polarized light microscopy, small angle X-ray scattering, and treansmission electron microscopy. Permeability, molecular weight cut-off, fouling, and solute rejection will be examined through pressure-driven filtration experiments. The outcome of the study will be foundational knowledge for making high-permeability ultrafiltration membranes with stimuli-responsive pores through a green-chemistry approach.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

缺水是当今世界面临的一个重大问题。随着世界人口的持续增长，水资源变得越来越稀缺，特别是在美国西南部等干旱和半干旱地区的苦咸水。要想获得低成本、高能效和环境可持续的高级水处理方法，需要开发和表征新的膜技术。水处理过程通常使用几种类型的膜，包括微滤、超滤、纳滤和反渗透膜。超滤膜在去除悬浮颗粒、病毒和细菌方面起着关键作用。超滤膜也是最常用的分离技术之一，应用于食品加工、化学制造和蛋白质纯化。尽管超滤膜与工业相关，但超滤膜是通过一种称为非溶剂诱导相分离(NIPS)的方法生产的，该方法需要使用大量的有机溶剂。NIPS工艺生产的膜也是各向异性的，表面孔隙率低，导致膜表面污染增加。该项目的总体目标是通过具有成本效益的绿色化学开发超滤膜，同时提高其渗透性，以降低水处理的成本和能源。通过本科生的研究机会和与研究相关的课程材料的开发，研究和教育被整合到该项目中。污垢控制，尤其是生物污垢的控制，一直是废水和水处理研究的重点。然而，许多以前提出的克服污垢的方法既不经济有效，也不能推广到不同的化学结构和聚合物。由于过滤过程会导致膜污染，随着时间的推移，膜通量会降低，因此可以使用表面清洗过程来清洁膜的表面。然而，NIPS膜的低表面孔隙率加剧了污染，这种污染不能通过反冲洗完全去除。反冲洗也是过滤过程中一个主要的能源消耗步骤。超滤膜需要(I)在不影响截留率的情况下提高渗透率和减少污染，以及(Ii)刺激响应行为，以帮助表面清洗。在不需要合成新的或昂贵的化学品的情况下以环保的方式生产这些膜的能力也仍然是一个突出的技术挑战。PI建议使用一种有机-无溶剂模板方法来解决这些挑战，以生产用于超滤应用的纳米孔聚合物。两亲性嵌段共聚物在水和含有单体的油相混合物中的自组装将被用作模板。油相中的单体在聚合时，由于疏水性的变化，会对温度和pH刺激产生构象变化反应。这种膜的孔径可以控制，以控制截留分子量和防污染行为。由于与现有的超滤膜技术相比，更高密度的纳米孔径可以均匀地结合到聚合物中，因此这种方法生产的膜的渗透性也有望在不影响截留率的情况下超过商业化产品。膜结构将使用偏光显微镜、小角X射线散射和透射电子显微镜进行表征。渗透性、截留分子量、污垢和溶质截留率将通过压力驱动过滤实验进行检测。这项研究的结果将是通过绿色化学方法制造具有刺激响应孔的高渗透超滤膜的基础知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。