Janus Distillation Membrane via Mussel-Inspired Inkjet Printing Modification for Anti-Oil Fouling Membrane Distillation

Morteza Afsari; Myoung Jun Park; Noel Jacob Kaleekkal; Mxolisi M Motsa; Ho Kyong Shon; Leonard Tijing

doi:10.3390/membranes13020191

Janus Distillation Membrane via Mussel-Inspired Inkjet Printing Modification for Anti-Oil Fouling Membrane Distillation

Membranes (Basel). 2023 Feb 3;13(2):191. doi: 10.3390/membranes13020191.

Authors

Morteza Afsari^{1

2}, Myoung Jun Park¹, Noel Jacob Kaleekkal³, Mxolisi M Motsa⁴, Ho Kyong Shon^{1

2}, Leonard Tijing^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, P.O. Box 123, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia.
² ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE), School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, 15 Broadway, P.O. Box 123, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia.
³ Membrane Separation Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut (NITC), Kozhikode 673601, India.
⁴ Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability (iNanoWS), College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa, Johannesburg 1709, South Africa.

Abstract

In this work, inkjet printing technology was used to print a thin layer of a hydrophilic solution containing polydopamine as a binder and polyethyleneimine as a strong hydrophilic agent on a commercial hydrophobic membrane to produce a Janus membrane for membrane distillation. The pristine and modified membranes were tested in a direct-contact membrane distillation system with mineral oil-containing feedwater. The results revealed that an integrated and homogenous hydrophilic layer was printed on the membrane with small intrusions in the pores. The membrane, which contained three layers of inkjet-printed hydrophilic layers, showed a high underwater oil contact angle and a low in-air water contact angle. One-layer inkjet printing was not robust enough, but the triple-layer coated modified membrane maintained its anti-oil fouling performance even for a feed solution containing 70 g/L NaCl and 0.01 v/v% mineral oil concentration with a flux of around 20 L/m²h. This study implies the high potential of the inkjet printing technique as a facile surface modification strategy to improve membrane performance.

Keywords: Inkjet printing; Janus membrane; asymmetric wettability; desalination; membrane distillation; oil fouling; surface modification.

Grants and funding

Morteza Afsari is grateful for the financial support from the UTS President’s Scholarship and the International Research Scholarship for his PhD studies. The team appreciates the partial support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the ARC Research Hub for Nutrients in a Circular Economy (NiCE) (IH210100001).