Reverse capillary flow of condensed water through aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Janus Graphene Oxide Sponges for High-Purity Fast Separation of Both Water-in-Oil and Oil-in-Water Emulsions

Membrane separation of oil and water with high purity and high permeability is of great interest in environmental and industrial processes. However, membranes with fixed wettability can separate only one type of surfactant-stabilized emulsion (water-in-oil or oil-in-water). Here, we report on Janus graphene oxide (J-GO) sponges for high purity and high permeability separation of both water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions. Millimeter-scale reduced GO sponges with a controlled pore size (11.2 or 94.1 μm) are synthesized by freeze drying, and the wettability is further controlled by fluorine (hydrophobic/oleophilic in air) or oxygen (hydrophilic/oleophilic in air) functionalization. J-GO sponges are prepared by the fluorine functionalization on one side and oxygen functionalization on the other side. Interestingly, the oil wettability of oxygen-functionalized surface turns into an oleophobic surface when immersed in water, which is explained by Young's theory. This effect is further used in the separation of both water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsions by changing the flow direction. The purity of the separated oil and water is very high (≥99.2%), and the permeability is more than an order of magnitude greater than those of the other Janus membranes reported. J-GO sponges can be reused with an excellent repeatability, demonstrating feasibility in practical applications.

A Bilayered Structure Comprised of Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes for Desalination by Membrane Distillation

The development of a novel carbon nanotube (CNT) immobilized membrane comprised of a double-layer structure is presented for water desalination by membrane distillation. The bilayered structure is comprised of CNTs functionalized with a hydrophobic octadecyl amine group on the feed side and carboxylated CNTs on the permeate side. The latter is more hydrophilic. The hydrophobic CNTs provide higher water vapor permeation, while the hydrophilic CNTs facilitate the condensation of water vapor. Together, these led to superior performance, and flux in a direct contact membrane distillation mode was found to be as high as 121 kg/m(2)h at 80 °C. The bilayered membrane represented an enhancement of 70% over the unmodified membrane and 37% over a membrane which had a monolayered structure where only the feed side was CNT-modified.

Ultrabreathable and Protective Membranes with Sub-5 nm Carbon Nanotube Pores

Small-diameter carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are shown to enable exceptionally fast transport of water vapor under a concentration gradient driving force. Thanks to this property, membranes having sub-5 nm CNTs as conductive pores feature outstanding breathability while maintaining a high degree of protection from biothreats by size exclusion.

Enhanced water vapor separation by temperature-controlled aligned-multiwalled carbon nanotube membranes

Here we present a new strategy of selectively rejecting water vapor while allowing fast transport of dry gases using temperature-controlled aligned-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (aligned-MWNTs). The mechanism is based on the water vapor condensation at the entry region of nanotubes followed by removing aggregated water droplets at the tip of the superhydrophobic aligned-MWNTs. The first condensation step could be dramatically enhanced by decreasing the nanotube temperature. The permeate-side relative humidity was as low as ∼17% and the helium-water vapor separation factor was as high as 4.62 when a helium-water vapor mixture with a relative humidity of 100% was supplied to the aligned-MWNTs. The flow through the interstitial space of the aligned-MWNTs allowed the permeability of single dry gases an order of magnitude higher than the Knudsen prediction regardless of membrane temperature. The water vapor separation performance of hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene membranes could also be significantly enhanced at low temperatures. This work combines the membrane-based separation technology with temperature control to enhance water vapor separation performance.