Enhancing Superhydrophobic Polypropylene Membranes via Polypropylene Coating for Stable Membrane Distillation of Aquaculture Seawater
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11113/jamst.v29n3.327Keywords:
Polypropylene, Membrane distillation, Water management, Superhydrophobic coating, Aquaculture seawaterAbstract
Membrane distillation (MD) suffers from membrane wetting due to inadequate surface hydrophobicity, which limits long-term flux stability and desalination performance. Electrospun polypropylene (PP) membranes offer a promising solution because of their high porosity and interconnected fibrous structure that promote vapor transport. However, neat electrospun PP membranes often fall short of achieving the superhydrophobicity needed for durable wetting resistance, restricting their practical use in MD. To address this limitation, this study employed a dip-coating approach to deposit hydrophobic PP layers onto electrospun membranes, introducing a roughened surface that enhances hydrophobicity and mitigates wetting. Two coating formulations, i.e. low-viscosity (PP-L) and high-viscosity (PP-H), were examined. Morphological characterization revealed that PP-L coatings penetrated the membrane matrix, causing pore blockage and a severe flux decline (PPM-C3-L: 1.2 kg/m2·h, 87.7% lower than neat PP). In contrast, PP-H coatings formed stereoscopic surface agglomerates without compromising porosity (82%) and achieving superhydrophobicity with a static contact angle of 156.7°. The optimal single-layer PP-H coated membrane (PPM-C1-H) maintained a high and stable flux of 13.3 kg/m2·h for 25 h, with 99.98% salt rejection when treating aquaculture seawater. SEM–EDS analysis confirmed negligible scaling and no pore wetting despite the presence of CaSO4, NaCl, and SiO2 precursors in the feed. Overall, dip-coated PP-H surface offers a scalable approach to improve PP membranes for long-term, stable, and high-quality desalination of complex aquaculture effluents.
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