Facile Preparation of a Superhydrophobic iPP Microporous Membrane with Micron-Submicron Hierarchical Structures for Membrane Distillation.

ABSTRACT: A facile method combining micro-molding with thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) to prepare superhydrophobic isotacticpolypropylene (iPP) microporous membranes with micron-submicron hierarchical structures is proposed in this paper. In this study, the hydrophobicity of the membrane was controlled by changing the size of micro-structures on the micro-structured mold and the temperature of the cooling bath. The best superhydrophobicity was achieved with a high water contact angle (WCA) of 161° and roll-off angle of 2°, which was similar to the lotus effect. The permeability of the membrane was greatly improved and the mechanical properties were maintained. The membrane prepared by the new method and subjected to 60h vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) was compared with a conventional iP

SUBMITTER: Hu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7240455 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature