A facile assembly of CNTs into novel hollow fiber membranes with tunable inner/outer diameters and structures is developed in our laboratory. These free-standing CNMs composed entirely of CNTs feature a porosity of 86 � 5% and a permeation flux of about 460 � 50 L m-2 h-1 at a pressure differential of 0.04 MPa across the membrane. The randomly oriented interwoven structure of CNTs endows the membranes considerable resistance to pore blockage. Moreover, the adsorption capability of the hollow fiber CNMs, which is crucial in the efficient removal of small and trace contaminant molecules, is about 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of commercial polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes. The advantage of the CNT hollow fiber membranes over other commercial membranes is these membranes possess electrochemical function because of the excellent electro-conductivity of carbon nanomaterials. As a result, CNMs can be in situ electrochemically regenerated after adsorption saturation. All these excellent attributes conform to the requirements of new advanced membranes, thereby demonstrating the great potential of the all CNT hollow fiber membranes for water treatment.

Carbon nanomaterials membranes (CNMs) and their performannce in water and wastewater treatment

248th National Meeting (2014)

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