Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology develops alternative nanofiber membrane for seawater desalination

摘要

The Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT) announced the development of a stable performance electrospun nanofiber membrane to turn seawater into drinking water by a membrane distillation process. The research team, led by Dr. Yunchul Woo, has created co-axial electrospun nanofiber membranes fabricated by elec-trospinning. The technology can prevent wetting issues and also improve long-term stability in the distillation process. The research team used poly (vinyli- dene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) as the core and silica aerogel mixed with a low concentration of the polymer as the sheath to produce a co-axial composite membrane and obtain a superhydro-phobic membrane surface. Silica aerogel exhibited a lower thermal conductivity compared with that of conventional polymers, which led to increased water vapor flux during the membrane distillation process due to a reduction of conductive heat losses. The research team applied the membrane distillation process using the fabricated co-axial electrospun nanofiber membrane for 30 days, performing at a 99.99% salt rejection.